Another Land Revisited
by kadair
Summary: Snow White wants to get to know her daughter. Emma doesn't know what she wants. Unfortunately for both of them, they're trapped in another land. (Ch.1-19 were written pre-season 2. Ch.20-27 were written post-season 2).
1. Family Reunion

**Family Reunion**

_Emma_

This had to be, by far, the most bizarre situation Emma Swan had ever found herself in, and that was saying something. She stood outside the Storybrooke General Hospital holding the hand of her ten-year-old son who had been dead only moments before. Henry was now very much alive thanks to, of all things, "true love's kiss". Together with his mother, Henry surveyed what was left of Storybrooke after a mysterious purple fog had blown through and wrecked the place.

All this, Emma could have handled, but she didn't think she would survive her next encounter. Emma locked eyes with her roommate whom she now believed was her mother and, to top it all off, Snow White - the Snow White. Emma had been searching for her parents her whole life, but out of all the scenarios she'd dreamed up, this had certainly not been one she'd concocted.

Snow White, who Emma knew as "Mary Margaret", strode across the street toward her daughter and grandson. Prince Charming, otherwise known as David Nolan, wasn't far behind her.

"You remember," Henry said to them.

Emma couldn't tell if his statement was a question or an exclamation.

"Yes," Mary Margaret said softly to Henry, but she never took her eyes off of Emma, "I remember."

Emma forced herself to keep eye-contact with her best friend who had in three small words confirmed it. Emma Swan was the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming.

_"I really need a drink,"_ Emma thought to herself and then on further consideration added, _"lots of drinks"_.

"You found us," David said to Emma. "I knew you would find us."

Emma looked at the man who she had to this point seen as little more than an irritation for causing undue grief in Mary Margaret's life. This was her father?

"No," Emma said, "Henry found you and me...all of us really." She looked down at her son and smiled, "You're the real savior, kid."

Henry grinned and looked wide-eyed at Charming. "Does this mean you'll teach me how to use a sword? I want to know how to fight a dragon!"

"Whoa, kid, slow down," Emma said. "You need to talk to me before you decide to play with sharp, pointy objects."

Emma looked back at Mary Margaret and David. Mary Margaret didn't seem to be hearing their conversation. She stared at Emma as if they were the only two people on the street, her eyes quickly filling with tears. Emma looked away, petrified that she might embarrass herself by crying too.

Twenty-four hours ago, things had made sense. Mary Margaret had been her best friend, but this family reunion turned everything Emma knew - everything she'd worked for - upside down.

Emma was shocked when Mary Margaret touched her, framing Emma's face with her hands. It was the most intimate moment that had ever transpired between the two of them. Emma never let anyone touch her like this, but she had dreamed of being looked at the way Mary Margaret was looking at her now.

After a long moment of silence, Snow said, "It's so good to see you again, Emma."

It struck Emma that this was not Mary Margaret speaking. Emma knew her best friend far too well not to recognize this alien person who had now taken Mary Margaret from her forever.

"Hi," Emma mumbled and then shifted backward, away from Mary Margaret. It wasn't an overtly dismissive move, but it was enough to make Mary Margaret keep her hands to her side.

Snow White nodded. "Now isn't the time. I understand."

In that moment, she looked like Mary Margaret again. Emma didn't know why, but seeing her old friend in this new woman's eyes was comforting.

"I need to go back to Mr. Gold's and see if I can find him," Emma said, shifting the focus away from obvious tension. "I'm pretty sure that he's the one behind all of this, and if he isn't, then he will know who is."

"You don't think it was Regina?" Mary Margaret asked.

Emma shook her head, "I don't think she had enough time after she left us at the hospital, unless the fog we just saw was part of the original curse." All of this talk about curses and magic was giving Emma a massive headache. "Could you two please watch Henry for me?"

"No," Mary Margaret said. "I want to come with you."

The strength in her voice was a blunt reminder to Emma that her best friend was gone.

"I don't know if that is a good -"

Snow White cut Emma off, saying, "I'm coming with you. Henry can stay here with James," she smiled at her husband, and he nodded, looking like he wanted steer clear of the power struggle the two woman were having.

Emma opened her mouth to argue but then decided against it. "Fine," Emma replied, and then to Henry she said, "please try to stay out of the hospital while I'm gone. I don't think I can take any more drama today."

"I'll be safe with Prince Charming," Henry said with a grin and then held out his hand for David's.

David looked like he was about to start crying, which was Emma's cue to leave - quickly.

"Well," Emma said to Snow White, "let's go then."

Mr. Gold's Pawnshop was open but vacant. _"Unless the little imp is hiding in one of the cabinets,"_ Emma thought and was halfway tempted to start searching for him there. This was pointless. For all Emma knew, he'd left Storybrooke.

"Emma," Mary Margaret said, "look at this."

Emma's eyes landed on something that looked like a wind chime made out of little unicorns. Walking over to it, Emma reached out and spun one the crystal figurines.

"What is it?" she asked.

"This was your baby mobile," Mary Margaret said.

Emma pulled her hand back quickly as if one of the unicorns had turned rabid and bitten her. _"How many times,"_ Emma asked herself, _"am I going to feel like I'm being run over by a bulldozer?"_

Emma spotted movement in the corner of her eye.

"What was that?" Emma asked.

"Did you hear something?"

"No, I think I saw something...Look, up there," Emma pointed at a mirror that was hanging overhead. It reflected the pawnshop, but it also reflected the purple fog from earlier that day, as if some of it were trapped inside. Emma double checked, but there was no fog in the room.

Emma walked over for closer inspection. "It must be stuck inside the mirror," she said.

"I don't see anything."

"There's purple fog in the mirror."

"I see the mirror, but I don't see - " her sentence was cut short by a tremor.

"Was that an earthquake?" Emma asked.

"I don't know. It felt like one."

"I've seen enough," Emma told her. "I trust David, but I don't trust Regina. We should get back to them."

"Agreed," Mary Margaret said.

There was another tremor, but this time it was so violent that many of the shops items crashed to the floor. Emma caught herself from sharing the same fate by grabbing a hold of the counter next to her. She didn't see the mirror above start to fall.

"Emma!" Mary Margaret screamed and bolted toward Emma. She shielded Emma with her body and braced herself for the impact. It never came.

Emma slowly opened her eyes and was surprised to find that they weren't in the pawnshop anymore.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"I don't know," Mary Margaret told her, "but I don't think we're in Storybrooke anymore."

**Note to readers**: The use of the name "Mary Margaret" or "Snow White" is always intentional in my story. Each chapter is either told from Emma's perspective or Snow White's perspective, but never from both at the same time. This first chapter was from Emma's perspective; therefore, when the name "Mary Margaret" was used, it signified that Emma was at that moment perceiving the character as her old roommate/best friend. When the name "Snow White" is used, even if Emma is not speaking, this means that she feels like Mary Margaret is Snow White. The same goes for Mary Margaret/Snow White's perception of herself. I hope that knowing this will give you additional enjoyment and insight into these two remarkable characters.

** Disclaimer**: I don't own Once Upon a Time.

Special thanks to _Dani-Ellie03_ for inspiring me with your stories to write this one.

Thanks for reading!


	2. Magic Land

**Magic Land**

_Snow White_

Mary Margaret surveyed their new surroundings. It was all so surreal - giant mushrooms, colors that weren't natural, and...was that a giant caterpillar?

"I really don't think we're in Storybrooke anymore," Mary Margaret repeated.

"What was your first clue?" Emma responded dryly and then said, "I know I'm new at all this fairytale stuff, but I think we're in Wonderland."

Mary Margaret swallowed audibly. "I was afraid of that."

"Have you been here before?"

She shook her head. Growing up, she'd heard stories about Wonderland. It was a wild, dangerous place - the stuff of nightmares.

"The real questions is, how do we get back?"

"I don't know," Mary Margaret said and marveled at how calm Emma looked.

"What do you mean you don't know? You're a fairytale character for crying out loud."

So much for staying calm, Snow White thought to herself. "I'm not from Wonderland, I'm from the Enchanted Forest." Silently she added, "And so are you."

"Yes, how could I be so ignorant?" Emma said sarcastically. "So, what do you know about this place? I could use all the information you have right about now."

"Well," Snow said, trying to remember what she'd heard growing up, "it operates on pure magic."

"What does that mean? Isn't that exactly like the Enchanted Forest?"

"No, my home has physical, mathematical, and scientific laws just like Storybrooke, Maine. The difference is that we also had magic. Still it was limited. Not everyone had it, and all of life didn't operate by it. Magic is everything here. At least, that's what my father always told me."

Emma was quiet. She seemed to be processing this new information, and she didn't look very happy about it. "You wouldn't be any chance be one of those people who had magic, would you?"

Snow White laughed darkly, "No, I was one of those people who was constantly cursed by it."

"So, we're stuck here with no idea how to get home?"

It was more of an accusation than a question. Snow could tell that Emma was angry, and she hated that she was the cause of it - that and being trapped in Wonderland. With everything that had happened, Snow hadn't had time to process how she felt about anything. She knew that a part of her was overjoyed that Emma was her daughter, but another part of her - a growing part of her - mourned the loss of her child. She would never get to hold her baby again. That realization brought tears to her eyes, but she forced herself not to cry. Crying about it wouldn't change the past.

"We'll get home," Snow told her, "to Storybrooke, that is, but first, we should probably find some kind of shelter and food. There's a forest up ahead. We will probably be safer there than out in the open."

"Safe from what?" Emma asked.

Snow White shrugged and said, "A bandersnatch."

"Those are real?" Emma asked, "I think I had to memorize a poem in high school that mentioned something about them."

"They're real alright," Snow said as they headed toward the forest. "My mother had a fur coat made out of one of their pelts."

"What happened to them?" Emma asked.

"The bandersnatches? I'm assuming they died, unless they can magically grow skin back. It is Wonderland after all."

Emma laughed, "No, Mary Margaret, your parents. What happened to them."

"Oh," she said, "they died too."

Snow White stared at the ground as she walked. _"Amazing,"_ she thought, _"after all this time, I still miss them so much."_ One of the few nice things about being Mary Margaret was that for twenty-eight years, she'd forgotten her parents were dead. It was strange to remember how her mind had worked only the day before. If Mary Margaret ever thought about her past or family, something had always managed to distract her. How had she forgotten to think about whether or not her parents were alive? Even worse, how could she have forgotten Emma? Curse or no curse, Snow White knew that she would never forgive herself for that.

Mistaking her silence for evasion, Emma said, "I understand if you don't want to talk about them."

"No," Snow said, smiling at Emma, "you should know about your...my parents." She didn't know if she should say "your grandparents". "My mother died when I was younger than Henry, but thankfully I was old enough that I can still remember her. She was an amazing mother. You look a lot like her, by the way, which might be why I thought I recognized you when you first came to Storybrooke. She was so beautiful - the fairest of them all, my father would say. Her name was Emma."

"Oh," Emma said. She looked unsure of how to respond to this new knowledge. "I guess we can't all have names like 'Snow White', huh?"

Snow laughed loudly, "Thank goodness for that. I loved my mother, but who names their child Snow White? She was a bit eccentric, and very different from Regina - "

"Who is justifiably insane," Emma cut in, "and on that note, it just occurred to me that my mother and my son were both raised by the same woman. That's weird."

"I guess you're the lucky one then," Snow White said only half-joking.

"What was she like with you? Was she the same as she is now with Henry?"

Snow shook her head, "No, she was different. However limited Regina might be in her capacity to love people, she honestly does care for Henry." Snow sighed, the truth about her relationship with her stepmother was also a painful memory that she hadn't had to deal with for a long time.

"She despised me," Snow continued, "which ironically meant that she was nicer to me than I think she is to Henry - at least on the outside. She said all the right things, but when she smiled at me, it never felt real. I wanted to believe that she loved me, and under different circumstances she might have been able to. I guess I'll never know."

"Why couldn't she love you?"

That was the same question Snow had asked herself hundreds of times. "I guess she felt trapped in her marriage with my father."

"How was any of that your fault?" Emma asked.

"That is a very long, and very depressing story, but suffice to say, I was the reason she was forced to marry him. He desperately wanted me to have a mother." Snow smiled to herself as she thought of him, "He really did spoil me, which is probably another reason why Regina and I never grew close. I could do no wrong in his eyes."

"That's why she had to be nice to you?"

Snow White nodded, "Yes, there wasn't any room for her to try to raise me like she has Henry. Perhaps in her mind, Henry is the one good thing she has done."

"Yeah," Emma said, "until she almost got him killed with that stupid apple."

"Well, that Henry and I do have in common."

In some morbid way, the thought of Regina poisoning both of her children was incredibly humorous, which caused both women to laugh.

"Should we nominate her for 'Mother of the Year'?" Emma asked.

"I'll bet she'd love that."

"Wait a moment," Emma said, "doesn't that make Henry your step-brother?"

Snow's mouth dropped as that realization sunk in. "Yes, it would. And that would make you his step-niece."

"This is making my brain hurt."

"Mine too."

It was this that made Snow White realize family tree dynamics would be the least of her worries. Far more terrifying and complex was her relationship with the woman walking beside her. Snow White's feelings about Emma made Wonderland look boring.


	3. Building Fires

**Building Fires**

_Emma_

It grew cold as the sun set on Wonderland. Emma had hoped that things like hunger and temperature changes wouldn't be an issue, but apparently, a land dominated by magic was in some ways no different from Storybrooke. Emma shivered and found herself wishing she was wearing something heavier than her red leather jacket.

"We should probably start a fire," Snow White said. "I know it's dangerous, but we can take turns staying awake during the night."

"Well, I hope you have matches," Emma said, "because I, for one, didn't grab a lighter on my way to the hospital with Henry this morning." Saying his name made Emma think about her son. Was he okay? Was he safe? It was maddening that she couldn't be there to protect him. _"Don't worry, kid,"_ Emma said silently. _"I will find a way back to you."_

"You don't know how to build a fire without matches?" Snow White asked.

"My foster parents didn't exactly take me camping," Emma said and then regretted it the moment the words left her mouth. "Mary Margaret, I didn't mean...I just...," Emma sighed, "I forgot you were my...um...you know..."

Mary Margaret looked away. "You forgot I was your mother."

Emma felt her heart jump at her words. This was the first time Snow White - the first time anyone - had said that Emma was her daughter.

"Yes," Emma said suddenly feeling vulnerable, "I'm sorry for mentioning the past. I wasn't trying to make you feel bad."

She looked into Emma's eyes, and Emma was once again struck with the feeling that this person was no longer the Mary Margaret she had come to love over the past couple of months. This was Snow White, and through some crazy twist of fate, this was her mother.

"Emma," she said, "you have nothing to be sorry for. I want to know about your childhood - whatever you're willing to tell me. I want to know how you became this amazing, wonderful woman. I adored you as a friend, but I have to admit that knowing that you're also my daughter makes me prouder than I could have ever imagined." Her eyes began to fill with tears. Snow White looked away from her daughter, trying to blink them away. "You should also know how devastated I am that I have had so little part in helping you become who you are today. For that, I am so sorry. I can't help feeling like it's my fault."

Without meaning to, Snow White struck a nerve, and for the second time that day, Emma backed away from her mother.

"It is your fault," Emma said, just then realizing that this was the woman who had abandoned her. Emma felt twenty eight years of anger, betrayal, and hurt suddenly rose to the surface, and she couldn't bury it if she wanted to. "Who places their newborn child into a magical wardrobe knowing it will send her into an unknown world completely alone? You want to know what my childhood was like? It was hell."

"I understand," Snow White said, suddenly not daring to look at her.

"I'm sorry, Mary Margaret - Snow White - whatever the hell your name is, but I don't think you do understand. How could you? You had two parents who loved you, and then you had a step-mother who at least pretended to love you. For crying out loud, you were a princess. You grew up in a freaking castle. I was lucky to have a roof over my head. Believe me; my foster parents and social workers reminded me of that often enough."

"Emma, I -"

"No, I'm talking. I waited for you for twenty-eight years. The least you can do is have the decency to listen to me now."

She nodded. Emma saw but could not process the pain in Snow White's eyes.

"I thought you left me to die on the side of the road like I was garbage. Do you have any idea what that does to a little girl...what that makes her think about herself? If my own mother thought I was trash, then I thought that I must be." Emma heard her voice crack as she forced herself not to cry. "So, why, Snow White, did you do it? How in God's name if you loved me could you do that to your own daughter?"

"The curse -"

"I don't care about curses or prophecies or saviors." Emma hated that she could hear herself about to cry. How many times had she cried growing up because of the woman standing in front of her? "Don't you get it? I was the one who needed a savior. I needed you, but you weren't there. No one protected me from abusive foster parents or perverted foster siblings or a biased world. No one held me or told me I was a good person. So I waited for my parents to come save me. I waited my entire childhood for you, but you never found me. Now I know that you didn't even look."

Emma knew that if she said another word, she would start to cry; so she stared at Snow White and waited for her response.

Snow White motioned with her hand to give her a moment. Emma could tell that she was on the verge of tears; so she decided to give Snow White some space.

"I'll go try to find what I think it takes to build a fire, but I'm not making any promises."

Emma walked away from Snow White as quickly as she could without actually running. She was only a couple yards away when Emma heard her start to cry. It didn't take long for her cries to turn into sobs which then turned into wailing. No matter how far away Emma went, Snow White's cries pierced the chilled, night air.

"You are not going to make me feel guilty," Emma said aloud even though no one could hear her. Emma knew she was only fooling herself if she thought she could stop caring for Mary Margaret. It was human to care, and whatever could be said about Emma's origins, she was undoubtedly human, and if Snow White's cries were evidence of anything, then she was human too.

Emma set down her pile of twigs, branches, and leaves and then sat on the ground with her back against a tree. She stared blankly at a patch of strange looking grass. Here she was alone in Wonderland with her newly found mother, Snow White, and all Emma could think about was how much she wished she could talk to Mary Margaret. She had always been the one that helped Emma make sense of her life, no matter how complicated it got. But Mary Margaret was gone forever, and in her place was the woman Emma had spent most of her life searching for. How was that for ironic?

Emma covered her face with her hands are started to cry. This wasn't how life was supposed to be. Damn Snow White and Prince Charming and their magical wardrobe, and most of all, damn Mary Margaret for leaving her to face this mess alone.

Emma couldn't be sure how much time passed, but when she finally looked up, she realized that the night sky was pitch black.

"Well, this is just great," Emma thought to herself. "Now I'm lost."

"Mary Margaret!" Emma called out. When she didn't get a response, she yelled, "Snow White! Where are you?" Emma couldn't help but feel a little ridiculous. Mother or not - she was calling out for a fairytale character.

"I'm over here!" Emma heard Snow White call.

Emma walked towards her voice and then called out again, "Where are you?"

"Behind you," Snow White said. Emma jumped. How had she gotten to her so fast? Emma spun around expecting to see Snow White. Instead, she found herself face to face with...


	4. Housewife Princess

**Housewife Princess**

_Snow White_

"I'm over here!"

Snow White was pulled from her personal pity party by the sound of her own voice. The only problem was, the voice didn't belong to her. "What the...?"

"Where are you?" she heard Emma call out.

"Emma!" Snow White yelled. "It's not me!"

Snow White ran as fast as she could toward Emma's voice. She cursed herself for letting Emma go out alone, and then she cursed Mary Margaret for not being in better shape.

Snow White's heart stopped when she heard her daughter scream. She was close by. As Mary Margaret, the most life threatening situation she'd been in was when Regina framed her for the murder of Kathryn Nolan. Snow White, on the other hand, was very accustomed to terrifying situations - also thanks to Regina. Snow used her mounting adrenaline to force herself run faster. Her was heart pounding, but her mind was clear. Snow White knew she would be useless to Emma if she panicked.

Snow saw Emma only a few yards away. A man stepped menacingly toward her. When the moon lit his face, Snow White saw that he was a hideous creature with the body of a man but the mouth of a snake. Snow assessed the situation. She didn't have a sword or even a knife on her - again, Mary Margaret never prepared for situations like this - but thankfully, the beast didn't have a weapon either...except for his long, deadly-looking teeth.

He never saw her coming. Snow White slammed into the creature, knocking them both to the ground. She rolled off of him before he could regain his senses and bite her. Snow looked around for something - anything - that could be used as a weapon, and her eyes landed on the pile of sticks Emma had gathered for the fire. They would have to do. The monster growled and grabbed Snow's ankle. She tried to pull her foot away, but his grip was ten times the strength of a man's.

"Let go!" she shouted at him.

The creature looked at her and momentarily seemed shocked by her audacity. The moment quickly passed. With a wicked smile that was not human, he mimicked her voice, "Let go!"

"Agh!" Snow yelled and kicked him the face.

Howling, the creature let go and covered his face with his claw-like hands, which gave her the time she needed to push Emma further out of the way and grab a handful of sticks. There was only one place on his body soft enough for them to make a impact - his face.

"Hey! Ugly! Over here!"

Thoroughly pissed, the monster made a terrible, high-pitched wail and charged at her. Snow White swore long ago that if she ever killed another human, then it would be the Evil Queen, but she had no qualms with destroying monsters, especially monsters who were stupid enough to attach her daughter. She used their combined momentum to shove the first stick deep into his eye socket. The creature screamed and frantically tried to pull it out. Snow took the opportunity to embed the second stick in his oversized mouth, pushing so hard that it came out the other end. No longer able to scream, he chocked and then dropped to the ground dead.

Wiping the blood from her face, Snow White turned to Emma and asked, "Are you all right?"

Emma looked like she was in shock. She moved her mouth as if to say something, but no words came out.

"Emma," Snow strode toward her, "are you all right?" She looked up and down her body; it was difficult to tell in the darkness, but Emma didn't have any visible injuries. Emma still didn't respond.

Snow White shook her. "Are you hurt? Say something."

Emma opened her mouth and squeaked, "You are not Snow White."

"What?"

Emma stared at the monster laying dead at their feet. "He never stood a chance," she told Snow. "You're supposed to be the Housewife Princess, not the Kickass Princess."

It was now apparent to Snow that her daughter was not hurt, but it was possible Wonderland was making Emma lose her mind. She'd heard stories about that happening.

"Housewife Princess," Snow White repeated. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know...the Housewife Princess. You cook and clean up after little men and animals follow you around while you sing to them. Ring a bell?"

Snow White took a moment to process this and then said, "I think I'm insulted."

"Would you prefer 'Bluebird Princess'?"

Snow White laughed, "I'd prefer 'Snow'...or if that's too weird, then you can keep calling me 'Mary Margaret'."

Emma glanced again at the now one-eyed, dead creature and said, "No one who can do that should go by a name like 'Mary Margaret'. Then again, 'Snow White' conjures up the image of a sweet and innocent princess...well, it did."

"I'm sweet," Snow defended herself, "just not when someone tries to kill my...roommate."

Emma laughed, grateful that Snow hadn't said 'daughter'. "Yes, whatever would you do without your toaster-breaking, floral-abusing jailbird roommate?"

"Exactly." Snow smiled at her and then said, "I'm glad you're okay. I don't know what I would have done if -"

Emma cut her off with a hug. Snow relaxed against her, and then surprised them both when she started to cry.

"Whoa, hey, wait a minute," Emma said pulling away so she could look at Snow White. "You just killed that thing over there without batting an eyelash, but this makes your cry?"

Snow White shrugged and then placed her hand on Emma's cheek. "I was afraid that I'd lost you...again."

"No," Emma said, "thanks to your alter-ego, Mary Margaret, you're stuck with me. I can't promise I'm going to be very fun to be around, but I can promise I won't leave. I would rather do this together than alone."

Snow White hugged Emma again. "Thank you," she whispered, enjoying the moment.

The moment was ruined by the sound of laughter.

Snow White and Emma turned and together saw the bodiless, floating head of a cat grinning down at them.

"You have got to be kidding me," Emma said.

The Cheshire Cat's smile broadened. "Welcome to Wonderland, Your Highnesses."


	5. Slave or Royalty

**Slave or Royalty**

_Emma_

Emma did her best to not gawk at the floating cat head but that was difficult.

"What do you want?" Snow White asked the Cheshire Cat.

"I want many things," the cat told them, "but wanting isn't getting, and sometimes the gotten isn't wanted. The crocotta you just killed got what was wanted by many but not by him...poor, poor Silvester. I warned him that his nasty temper would temper him, but he did not listen."

"Silvester?" Snow White asked.

"Silvester," the cat repeated and gestured with is head toward the dead creature.

"Okay," Emma said. She had had enough. "Insanity is obviously in the water around here. We're going to leave now."

"You must be drunk on our water then," he said. "For if you truly want to get gone from this land, then you should want my aid."

"We would very much like to 'get gone' from Wonderland," Snow said, "and if you are willing to help us, then we are willing to let you."

Emma shot her a look. Clearly, Mary Margaret had lost her mind. How else could she even consider following a bodiless, talking cat around Wonderland?

The cat, who was now reduced to nothing more than a giant grin, said, "Follow me my pretty little willings!"

The Cheshire Cat floated ahead of them, babbling nonsense to himself - or possibly to them. Emma couldn't be sure.

"Why exactly are we following him?" Emma asked Mary Margaret quietly. "How can you be sure he's trustworthy?"

"Oh, I don't trust him," she told Emma, "but he hasn't tried to kill us yet, which is practically a sign of friendship around here," Snow said matter-of-factly.

"I hate Wonderland," Emma mumbled as they continued to trudge on through the night.

To Emma, it felt like an eternity before they reached their destination. It was mindboggling to think that within the past twenty-four hours she had killed a dragon, brought her son back from the dead, met her parents, traveled to Wonderland and taken advice from the Cheshire Cat, and those were just the highlights of her never-ending day.

The cat disappeared and then reappeared behind them chuckling and bouncing up and down. Both women jumped nearly a foot off the ground.

"Cheshire," Emma growled, "don't do that!"

"We are here to where you should want to be, Pretty Willings. The White Queen would happily await you if she knew you were coming. Tah tah!" he said and then disappeared - this time, Emma hoped, for good.

"I think that was his way of saying that the White Queen's castle is up ahead, and she will let us stay here tonight," Snow White told her.

"Ah, of course," Emma replied. "How could I have missed that? Tell me, Snow White. Do they teach children in fairytale land how to speak Cheshire, because that class wasn't offered in my high school."

Missing the joke, Snow shrugged and said, "I never went to school."

"What? Why?" Emma asked.

"I had tutors," Snow said matter-of-factly. "They lived with us in the castle."

"Of course they did." It was becoming more and more apparent to Emma just how different their childhoods had been.

Snow smirked at Emma's dry tone and then said, "Come on. Let's go meet the queen. Hopefully the cat is right, and she'll let us stay with her while we figure out what we're going to do next. If nothing else, this will give us a chance to get some sleep."

"Sleep," Emma said longingly. "That sounds nice."

Had Emma been aware of her surroundings, she would have marveled at the White Queen's castle. It wasn't built; it was grown by what looked like Ash trees. The trunks encased the interior walls, and somehow the roof was held together by interwoven branches. It was a marvel to be seen, even by the people and creatures of Wonderland.

Emma did notice the six foot tall rabbit dressed in a tuxedo who addressed them as they approached the palace gate. "Good night to the two of you. Do you wish to enter the White Queen's castle? If so, what is your purpose?"

"Yes," Snow White said to the rabbit, "we are looking for somewhere safe to stay for the rest of the night."

"And are you benevolent, benign, or bad?" the rabbit asked. When they didn't immediately respond to his query, he added, "Or are you animal, vegetable, or mineral?"

"Why doesn't anyone make sense in this place?" Emma mumbled.

Snow White gave her a look that said "be quiet before you get us both killed," and then she said to the rabbit, "We do not wish to harm anyone. We are simple travelers."

"You are benign then," the rabbit concluded. "I will grant you entry, but you must see the queen before you will be allowed to stay."

As they followed the rabbit into the castle walls, Emma whispered to Snow White, "You should have said 'benevolent'."

"Feel free to do the talking next time," Snow White whispered back.

Emma sincerely hoped there wouldn't be a "next time". The sooner they got out of Wonderland, the sooner she could get back to Henry and start living at least a semblance of a normal life.

[break]

The White Queen was very...white. From her crystalline hair to her blinding clothes and pale skin, she was a tribute to the color she was named for. It was as if, even in the dead of night, light illuminated from her. After growing up in foster care, Emma had developed a sixth sense for people, and Emma sensed there was something very dark about the White Queen.

"You are not of Wonderland," the White Queen said to them as they approached her throne.

"Yes, Your Majesty, we are not from Wonderland." Snow curtsied and motioned for Emma to do the same.

"You can't be serious," Emma said.

"Do it," Snow said through gritted teeth.

Emma sighed and did her best impression of the curtsies she'd seen in films. It didn't go over well.

"What's wrong with her?" the White Queen asked Snow. She looked genuinely perplexed by Emma's awkward behavior.

"She's very tired, Your Majesty. I apologize."

"Apology accepted. Now tell me, from whence do you hail, and for what reason do you travel here to my glorious Wonderland?"

"We are from the Enchanted Forest," Snow explained, "but we were living in a land called Storybrooke when we traveled here by accident."

"I have not heard of Storybrooke Land, but I am quite familiar with the Enchanted Forest. I have heard that your land in now impossible to reach or be reached from. How did this come to pass? Why did you and your people leave?"

"It's a very long story," Emma said.

"I am sure that it is, just as I am sure that it is a very interesting story." The White Queen clapped her hands, reminding Emma of a five-year-old child. "I must hear this story at once!"

"Your Majesty," Snow said carefully, "we would not do the story justice in our current state. If you would grant us permission to stay the rest of the night, we would be more than happy to tell you the whole tale."

The queen took a moment to pout and then said, "I agree to your terms, but first you must tell me your names."

Snow White hesitated, obviously deciding whether or not they should lie about who they were. After a moment of consideration, though, she said, "My name is Snow White, and this is Emma Swan."

"Snow White?" Excitement spread across the queen's face. "Are you Queen Snow White, the step-daughter of the Ex-Queen Regina, who humbled my petulant sister, the Queen of Hearts, by stealing one of her trophies?"

Snow took a moment to process this information. "Yes, Your Majesty," she said. "That would be me."

A wicked grin crossed the White Queen's face, "Then you are most welcome indeed, but who is this?" she motioned toward Emma. "She does not seem to be of the Enchanted Forest as you claim she is. Therefore, she must be a slave you acquired in this strange Storybrooke Land."

Emma snorted. "What gave me away?"

"Silence, slave girl," the White Queen growled.

"I swear to you," Snow White said quickly, "this is Princess Emma Swan of the Enchanted Forest. She seems different only because she was an infant when we left our home."

The White Queen's face contorted into a piercing, frigid snarl. "Is this Emma Swan your sister?" she spat. "Sisters are not to be trusted. Sisters take what does not belong to them."

The air was nearly electric with tension. Emma wasn't sure what was happening exactly, but she did know that the conversation had shifted from congenial to dangerous. One more misplaced word, and the White Queen would go nuclear.

"She is my daughter," Snow White said evenly, but there was an edge in her voice that Emma had never heard in Mary Margaret's. "Even as I respect your position as the queen of this land, I expect you, Your Majesty, to acknowledge Princess Emma Swan for who she is and not who she seems to you to be."

For the second time that night, Emma stared at Snow White in awe. She just issued the crazy, creepy queen an ultimatum, and she had done it to protect Emma. This was not Mary Margaret. Who was this woman who one moment showed deference and the next moment commanded royalty?

All eyes were on the queen, waiting for her reaction. Surprisingly, the queen visibly relaxed. "Good. I would have hated to have to kill you," she said to Emma. "Killing is such a messy business. And it is no way to welcome new friends and their...daughters."

"I couldn't agree more," Snow White said with a forced smile. "And now that you know our names and that we are not sisters, may we please retire for the night?"

"Of course," the queen chirped happily. "Rupert!"

"How may I serve you, Your Royal Magnificent Majesty?" the rabbit asked timidly. He was clearly shaken from the recent showdown.

"Rupert, show her majesty and her highness to their wing of the castle at once."

The rabbit bowed his ears and motioned for Snow White and Emma to follow him, which they did, gladly.


	6. Waking Up

**Waking Up**

_Snow White_

Rupert took them up a winding staircase to the northwestern wing of the palace. Somehow, the floor was made of moss, and Snow White briefly wondered how it didn't get ripped to shreds every time it was walked on.

"This is your room, Your Majesty."

It was strange to be called by that title after twenty-eight years of thinking she was an ordinary woman from a little town in Maine. This, Snow thought, was one thing she shared in common with Emma, who had never been called "Your Highness" or "Princess". There was so much she wanted to share with Emma, but Snow had to constantly remind herself that Emma needed time. But after what felt like a lifetime of waiting, time was a currency Snow was reluctant to let go of.

"Emma," Snow said, "why don't you stay with me tonight?"

"Why?" she asked her. Snow was sad to see the guarded look in Emma's eyes.

"Because the last time we were separated, you nearly got yourself killed," Snow White said.

"I can take care of myself."

"I wasn't suggesting that you couldn't," Snow White told her, trying to hide the frustration she felt. "I just think that while we're in Wonderland we should stick together. It's safer for both of us."

"Fine," Emma said, looking too tired to put up a decent fight. She walked past Snow into their room and then let herself fall face first onto the bed.

"I will take my leave then," Rupert told Snow White. "If you should require anything, I or one of the other servants would be glad to assist you."

"Thank you," Snow White said and then closed the door. Emma was still lying face first in the bed. If Snow didn't know better, she would worry that Emma had stopped breathing.

"Here," Snow said, "let me help you." She pulled off Emma's shoes, and then placed a blanket over her shoulders.

"Are you tucking me in?" Emma asked. Her voice was muffled by the comforter she laid on top of.

_"Yes,"_ Snow silently acknowledged, _"I am,"_ but to Emma, she simply said, "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Mar...um...goodnight."

Emma fell asleep quickly. Mary Margaret had always been jealous and slightly in awe of her friend's ability to sleep practically anywhere - her car, her desk at the sheriff's station, and on one special occasion, against the refrigerator door. Emma once told Mary Margaret that it was the product of never staying in one home very long.

Snow White felt a quick, painful stab of guilt as she remembered their earlier conversation...

_ "You left me to die on the side of the road like I was garbage," Emma had said; "So, why, Snow White, did you do it? How in God's name if you wanted me could do that to your own daughter?"_

Hearing Emma say that was one of the most painful moments in Snow's life, almost as painful as the day she had been forced to let her daughter go. Snow White closed her eyes and relived the worst night of her life...

Snow White held her infant daughter in her arms for the first time, and she marveled at how beautiful, how perfect she was. Charming kissed his wife, as baby Emma's tiny hand wrapped her mother's finger. What she felt for Emma was something entirely different than the love she felt for James, but it was just as true and just as powerful. Emma mustered the energy to open her eyes and study her mother's face. Snow White knew all about love at first sight, and this was it.

All too soon, realization hit Snow like a hammer, and she felt her heart stop, "The wardrobe," she told her husband, "it only takes one."

Snow White heard the castle doors burst open. There were yells and the sound of metal clashing against metal. Many good people would die that night fighting to protect their king and queen and, most of all, their infant savior.

"Then our plan has failed," James said. In all the time she'd known him, Snow had never heard her husband's voice tremble like this. The curse was going to destroy them all, including their precious, little daughter. "At least we're together," he told his wife as he tried to treasure the last moments he had with them.

As if on cue, Emma cried. Snow White knew what had to be done.

"No, you have to take her," Snow told him. "Take the baby to the wardrobe." She could hear the frantic tone in her voice. What if he didn't make it? What if...Snow couldn't bear the thought of what Regina would do to Emma if she found her.

"Are you out of your mind?" Charming asked her.

Emma's cries turned to wails. She must have been able to sense the panic in her parents' voices.

"No!" Snow cried. "It's the only way. You have to send her through -"

"No, no, no, you don't know what you're saying -"

"You know I do. We have to believe that she'll come back for us," she said, almost choking on her own tears. "We have to give her her best chance," Snow pleaded.

With tears rolling down his face, Charming leaned over and kissed his daughter for the first and perhaps the last time.

"Goodbye, Emma." Snow White spoke to her daughter with all the love in her heart. She prayed that it was enough for her daughter to remember that she, above all else, was loved. Though she shook with grief, Snow leaned over and kissed her baby softly. Emma was quiet now, even as her mother's tears fell upon her face.

Snow turned away from Charming as she handed her baby over to him. She could not bear to watch him take Emma from her arms.

Taking the baby, Charming steeled himself for what was to come. He leaned over and kissed his wife, trying to pour all of his passion, all of his love, into that kiss, because he knew that he was going on a one-way trip. Charming grabbed his sword and pitied the man that got in his way. He looked back at his wife one last time, begging with his eyes for the love to give him strength for what he was about to do.

Snow White knew that if she had asked him to stay he would. More than anything, Snow wanted to cry, "Give her back to me," but she knew what had to be done. Instead, she sent him an encouraging smile and then watched him leave with her baby girl.

Her heart felt as if it were being ripped from her chest. Snow White was no stranger to grief, but until that moment, she had never truly known pain. Snow White cried as she held out her arms, reaching for the child she would never again get to hold...

Tears ran down Snow White's face as she watched Emma sleep. Twenty-eight years of her child's life had been stolen from Snow in an instant; so even though she was exhausted she didn't sleep for fear that if she closed her eyes her daughter would vanish. Emma looked so peaceful, and just like when she'd been a baby, Emma was oblivious to her mother's tears that fell down on her. It was at that moment Snow White realized that even when she hadn't remembered who she was or where she came from, a part of her had lived on inside of Mary Margaret - the part that never stopped missing her daughter. Every day, she looked for Emma in the faces of her students until one day, a miracle happened. Her daughter walked into her classroom and back into her life. Mary Margaret hadn't understood why, but the moment she saw Emma, it had felt as if her heart started beating again. That was when everything had started to change. That was when Snow White slowly, steadily began to wake up from the curse. She found courage. She found love and passion, but most importantly, she found Emma.

Snow White brushed her daughter's hair away from her face and said, "I love you, Emma."

Emma stirred and quietly said in her sleep, "I love you too, Mary Margaret."

[break]

The two women slept through the morning and well into the afternoon. When Mary Margaret awoke, the first thing she saw was her roommate staring at her intensely. What was Emma doing in her room?

"Emma? Is something wrong?"

Mary Margaret yelped when she saw that she wasn't in her room or even their apartment. "Where are we?" she asked and then all at once her past day - her past life - rushed back to her memory just as it had when the curse had been broken. Her real name wasn't Mary Margaret. She was Snow White.

_"No, no, I'm dreaming,"_ Mary Margaret thought even as Snow White's memories asserted themselves in her mind. Emma was actually her daughter, which made one of her students, Henry, her grandson. Then she realized that she wasn't a teacher. _"I'm a...queen who was living under a curse for twenty-eight years. Now, I'm trapped in Wonderland. At least Emma is with me,"_ Mary Margaret thought but then remembered, _"Emma is my...my..."_

"Oh my God," Mary Margaret finally managed to say.

"Yep," Emma said. "It hit me when I woke up this morning too."

The confirmation that she was not alone in her new reality was too much for Mary Margaret. She started hyperventilating.

"Whoa!" Emma put her hands on Mary Margaret's shoulders to steady her. "Calm down. Take slow, easy breaths. That's it. Breathe. It's all going to be okay."

The part of her that thought she was Mary Margaret, was overwhelmed by the idea that she was Snow White, and the part of her that remembered she was Snow White was overwhelmed that her twenty-eight-year old daughter was sitting in the bed next to her telling her to breathe.

"Holy shit," Snow White said. There really were no other words that were appropriate for moments like these.

Emma looked momentarily shocked and then burst out laughing.

Snow White stared at the woman beside her who felt alien all of a sudden. It was as if she only knew Emma when she felt like Mary Margaret. "What's so funny?"

"I think that's the first time I've ever heard you say the word 'shit'."

"Technically, that's not true."

Emma looked confused. "It's not?"

"No, I said that and a whole lot of others things while I was in labor with you."

Emma's mouth unexpectedly dropped, but she recovered quickly enough. "Oh, well, um...I really don't know how to respond to that, so I'm going to change the subject. Apparently, the scary queen lady downstairs wants us to eat lunch with her and then explain how the our lives turned into a magical soap opera."

"Great," Snow said unenthusiastically, remembering the White Queen and her insane behavior.

"Yeah, and I thought you could be in charge of the storytelling part considering you're the fairytale character."

"What does that make you?" Snow asked rhetorically.

"Not a fairytale character," Emma said.

Snow White opened her mouth to argue with Emma's logic, but then the part of her that was Mary Margaret decided it wasn't worth the effort. Snow needed time to wake up and process her new life.

"Emma," Snow said after sifting through a few of Mary Margaret's more recent memories.

"Yes."

Remembering her brief, R-rated encounter with Dr. Whale, Mary Margaret asked, "Is it cheating when you're married to sleep with someone else if you can't remember that you're married when you do it?"

Emma's eyes widened. She knew exactly what Mary Margaret was referring to. Grinning, Emma said, "I'm staying out of that."

"James is going to kill me," Snow White said.

"Nah," Emma told her. "I wouldn't be too worried."

"And why is that?"

"Well, remember when you told me that Kathryn thought she might be pregnant? I'm pretty sure that means James must have slept with her at least once - probably more than once because he felt guilty for falling for you. So, that makes you two even, right?"

Snow White stared at her daughter who was under the false illusion that her logical approach to the situation was helping.

"Mary Margaret, you look sick. What is it?"

"Shit," Snow White said again. If she ever got back to Storybrooke, she was going to do far more than merely slap a certain Princess Abigail and Prince Charming.


	7. Broken

**Broken**

_Emma_

When Emma awoke the following morning, she didn't have time to face her new reality. It was face-to-face with her in the form of a grinning, insane feline.

"Ah!" Emma sat straight up in bed.

"Wha, what is it? What's wrong?" Mary Margaret asked, still halfway between awake and asleep.

"What the hell are you doing?" Emma asked the Cheshire Cat.

"Aiding my Pretty Willings, unless you are now pretty unwilling to leave this wonder-filled land," the cat replied, never ceasing to grin.

Emma groaned. "Will you cut it with the riddles?"

"I think he's saying that he found a way home for us," Snow White, who was now fully awake, clarified.

"Perhaps," the cat agreed, "but perhaps not."

"Just tell us what you know," Emma said and then added, "please."

"There is a mirror within our land that will land you on yours."

"Our land?" Snow asked. "Do you mean Storybrooke or the Enchanted Forest?"

The Cheshire Cat laughed and asked, "When the caterpillar becomes the butterfly, does it then cease to be the caterpillar?"

"And now I'm confused again," Emma said and looked to Snow to translate.

"It's gone," Snow White said quietly. "He's saying that the Enchanted Forest is gone. Regina must have destroyed it in order to make Storybrooke."

"Oh," Emma said. She wasn't sure what the protocol was for this kind of situation. She couldn't very well say "sorry your step-mother went postal and destroyed your entire world".

"I'm never going home," Snow White said.

"Then you believe that the butterfly is not the caterpillar?" the cat asked.

Snow White sighed and said, "You're right, Cheshire. My home isn't gone; it's just different." Looking at Emma she added, "And now I have you."

"Uh, thank you? Let's pretend for a moment that I actually understand what the two of you are talking about," Emma said. "Cheshire, where's the mirror that will get us back to Storybrooke?"

"Journey to the castle of the Queen of Hearts, and if you do not perish, you will find what you seek."

Snow started to translate, "He said -"

"Queen of Hearts' castle - don't die - find mirror and go home," Emma interrupted. "I got it. Thanks." Emma was happy to finally have something to do other than sit around listening to lunatics all day long. "Let's go."

[break]

It paid to be allies with the one person who despised the Queen of Hearts more than anyone else in all of Wonderland - and that was saying something. The White Queen not only provided them with directions and supplies for their journey, but she also gave them a way into the castle - a forged invitation to court addressed to Lady Mary Margaret Blanchard of Storybrooke Land. The White Queen's only request was that they place a note within the queen's personal chambers, which also happened to be where the mirror was. Snow White and Emma were more than happy to oblige.

In the White Queen's armory, Emma couldn't get over how strange it was watching her old roommate test out a sword and crossbow as if they were a pair of new tennis shoes.

"Are you sure you know how to use those things?" Emma asked her.

Snow White laughed. "I'm sure. Have you ever shot an arrow?"

"Does a Nerf gun count?"

"Um, no. Let me see if I can find a dagger for you to carry, but, Emma, do me a favor."

"What?"

"If we get into trouble out there, I don't want you to fight. I want you to run."

"Absolutely not," Emma said feeling insulted. Just because she didn't grow up shooting a bow and arrow, that didn't mean she couldn't protect herself. "I can handle myself. I fought a dragon for crying out loud."

"You were lucky, Emma, that you didn't die. Please, promise me you'll use this only to protect yourself. Let me do the fighting if it comes to that."

"No," Emma told her. "I'm not going to sit back and let you do everything. That's not who I am."

"Then you're going to get yourself killed," Snow White said curtly.

"Really?" Emma asked. Mary Margaret had never once questioned Emma's ability to take care of herself. This woman, on the other hand, didn't seem to think she was capable of anything. Snow White was wrong. "I did just fine on my own for the first twenty-eight years of my life without you; so stop acting like you're a knight in white armor here to rescue me."

"Emma," Snow White said gently, "I'm sorry that I wasn't there, but I'm here now. I'm just trying to protect you."

"I don't need you to protect me!"

Emma could tell that her words had stung Snow White, but it was true. She didn't need her. The person she needed was her best friend, not this Mary Margaret lookalike

"Oh really? Prove it," Snow said and tossed Emma a wooden sword. "Fight me."

Emma looked at the practice sword in her hand. "What? This is stupid."

"No, you thinking that you can make it out there with nothing more than words to protect you is what's stupid. You're angry at me. I get that; so fight me...unless you're scared I'll win."

Emma laughed at her obvious attempt to bait her. She couldn't believe they were even having this conversation. Emma tried to imagine Mary Margaret issuing such a ridiculous challenge. "You don't have a weapon," she pointed out.

Snow White smirked. "I don't need one." She moved more quickly than Emma had ever seen Mary Margaret move, and before Emma knew it, she was flat on her back with the wind knocked out of her.

Emma looked up at Snow White, who had gotten a hold of the wooden sword and was now pointing it at Emma's heart. "I wasn't ready," Emma mumbled - not sure which hurt worse, her ass or her pride.

"I'm sure you're enemies will take that into consideration," Snow said and then dropped the sword by Emma's side. "Congratulations, Emma, you'd be dead."

Thinking she'd won and that they were done, Snow turned to adjust the quiver's straps around her shoulder and waist.

Emma pushed herself off the floor and said, "Let's try that again, but this time pick up a damn sword."

"Why?" Snow asked. "Are you afraid I'll take yours again?"

"Agh!" Emma swung at her head, but Snow White nimbly dodged out of the way.

"You fight like a troll."

Emma wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean, but she knew an insult when she heard one. She swung again and again. Each time Emma connected with either an inanimate object or air. _"How the hell is she this fast?"_ Emma wondered.

Snow White must have realized that Emma wasn't going to give up. "You think you could survive in a real fight?" she asked and picked up her own practice sword. Snow shifted into a fighting stance and said, "Come on. We don't have all day."

Emma responded by taking another swing at her. Snow White easily parried the blow, and after two more strikes, she managed to knock Emma's sword out of her hand. "Had enough?" she asked, holding out her hand for a truce.

"Nope." Emma pushed Snow White backwards into a rack of shields, which gave her time to pick up her sword.

Now no longer smiling, Snow White looked royally pissed off as she shifted from defense to offense. They went on like this for the next five minutes. It wasn't a fair fight due to the years of experience Snow had on Emma. She would either disarm Emma in a few moves or simply knock her to the ground. Sometimes, she did both, but Emma kept stubbornly coming back for more.

"Emma, just give up already," Snow White said. "This is becoming ridiculous."

Emma, who was now breathing very hard, said, "That's the funny thing about growing up with no one to depend on but yourself. I don't give up." She took another swing, which Snow easily deflected.

"Emma, how long are you going to punish me for something I couldn't control?"

"Couldn't control?" Emma asked. "You had a choice. You chose to send me away." Emma kicked Snow White backwards and then started swinging at her again. Snow White barely got out of the way this time.

"You're right!" Snow said. "I did have a choice, and do you know what, Emma? I would do it again in a heartbeat because it was the right thing to do!"

Something happened to Emma at that moment. She felt a burst of energy explode inside of her. The ball of energy had nowhere to go but out and straight toward her opponent, hitting Snow White so hard that it picked her up and slammed her into a wall five feet away. She fell to the floor in a heap and groaned.

"Shit!" Emma raced over to her side, checking to see if Snow White was conscious. "Mary Margaret, are you okay?"

Snow White groaned. "No, I'm not okay. You threw me into a wall."

"What happened?" Emma asked and tried to help Snow off the ground.

Snow White pushed Emma's arms away. "You used magic, Emma...against me."

"I didn't mean to. I didn't know I could do that."

"I'm so glad I could help," Snow said, wincing as she stood up. "I think it's safe to say that I was wrong; you can protect yourself. You don't need me."

Snow White looked away from Emma. The look on her face reminded her so much of Mary Margaret that Emma suddenly wished she could take it all back.

"Mary - I mean - Snow, I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to hurt you."

"Physically or emotionally?"

"Both," Emma said.

"Forgive me for not taking your word for it, but I now have bruises of both kind that prove otherwise," Snow said.

"I'm sorry," Emma mumbled. "I shouldn't have let myself get so angry."

"Why do you keep pushing me away, Emma?" Snow White asked her. "Really, I want to understand, because you say that you wanted to find me your whole life. Well, here I am, and now you know that I did want you, that I do love you, and that I want to spend the rest of my life getting to know better. It doesn't make sense, because just as quickly, you start acting like my friend again."

Emma sighed. She had been asking herself the same questions so many times over the past few days, but now she thought she finally had the answer. "The problem is that I love Mary Margaret for being the first person who was ever there for me, but at the same time I despise my mother never being there. You are both of those people rolled up into one, and I don't know how to handle that. No normal person would."

"You despise me for not being there?" Snow White's eyes glazed with tears, again reminding Emma of Mary Margaret. "Don't you think I wanted to be? Emma, I sent you through the wardrobe so that you would have your best chance. Regina would have killed you. Do you understand that?"

"Then why didn't you kill her first."

"Emma, killing someone darkens a person's soul."

"Do you know what else 'darkens a person's soul', Snow White?...Growing up without a family. You abandoned me to fate based on the prophecy of a crazy man and the hope that we would all get to live happily ever after. Maybe that's how things worked in your world, but in mine, I fight for people I love."

"Like you fought for Henry when he was born?" Snow White asked her. "If I'm not mistaken, you gave him away just like I did you."

Emma couldn't believe Mary Margaret had just said that. "That was different."

"You're right. It was different. I gave you away because you're life was in danger. You gave him up because of why, Emma? Was it the responsibility you were afraid of, or did you just not love him back then?"

No, Mary Margaret would have said that. "I'm done talking to you, Snow White." Emma started to walk away.

"That's right, Emma. Run away like you always do."

Emma turned and faced her. So, this was her mother. "Those are harsh words coming from the woman who taught me how."

Snow's eyes widened. "You're right," she said. "We're done talking, and I'm done fighting with you. We need to get back to Storybrooke; so grab a real sword. You're going to need it."

As Emma watched Snow White walk away, she felt like a piece of her heart went with her as well. How could either of them protect the other from the dangers they were about to face, if they tore one anther apart?


	8. We Are Both

**We Are Both**

_Snow White_

Thanks to the aftermath of their fight, Snow White and Emma traveled together in silence for the next day. Stubbornness, Snow thought, must be an inherited quality. So many times, she started to apologize, but then she stopped herself. Emma had made it crystal clear that she didn't want anything to do with her.

This wasn't the family reunion Snow had had in mind. When she had first awoken from the curse and remembered who she was, Emma had been one of her first memories - not the woman who walked silently next to her but the infant child she had held in her arms. Moments later, Snow White had connected that image with memory upon memory of her best friend. The joy she had felt had been overwhelming. Now Snow realized she had been foolish to think the feeling would be mutual.

_ "Throwing yourself a pity party isn't going to change things,"_ Snow White told herself as she and Emma walked into a forest of giant mushrooms. The vivid colors and wildlife were lost on her. All she could think about was how she was going to bridge the gap between the two of them. _"I brought down your walls before,"_ Snow said silently to Emma, _"and I'll be damned if I can't do it again."_

Snow White cleared her throat. "So, about back there - "

"I don't want to talk about it."

"But I -"

"I don't want to talk about it," Emma repeated.

"Emma, please..." Snow White said and then paused, waiting.

Emma sighed and then said, "Fine. Talk."

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about those things I said about you and Henry. I was hurt, and I lashed out in a way that I shouldn't have. Everyone can see how much you love him."

Emma looked at her. There was visible pain in her eyes. "I'm sorry too. I wish..." Emma trailed off, and then said, "to be honest, I don't know what to wish for."

"Do you wish you still didn't know who I was?" Snow asked, not quite sure she was ready for the answer.

Emma sighed and said, "No, yes, I don't know...maybe. What about you?"

"Mary Margaret was always searching for something, for someone, and now I know why. Waking up from the curse and seeing you again was one of the best moments of my life. I don't care how complicated it is, Emma. The only think I regret is not knowing you sooner."

"I wish that I could be as sure of everything as you are."

Snow White laughed and said, "Boy do I have you fooled. So many times over the past couple of days I've thought, 'I need to tell Emma this,' or I've asked myself, 'what would Emma say about that?'. Honestly, I don't know how I decided anything before I met you in either lifetime." Snow was suddenly afraid she might have said too much, and she didn't think she could handle another fight. She was relieved when she heard Emma laugh.

"Yeah, I know the feeling. I wish I could to talk to you about you, but I can't because it's not as if I can expect an objective opinion."

"You're probably right," Snow said and then added, "I wonder if this is what it's like to have multiple personality disorder."

"Being that I'm one of the only people in Storybrooke that doesn't have an alter ego, I'm probably not the best one to ask. It sounds confusing as hell to wake up and suddenly realize you've lived a whole other life."

"Tell me about it," Snow said. "Archie's going to have his hands full."

"Unless, of course, he turned back into a cricket," Emma replied.

"Wait, Archie was...oh, well that makes sense."

"Does it?" Emma asked. How did any of this madness make sense?

"So, if I wasn't Snow White, and I was just Mary Margaret, what would you tell me to do?"

Emma laughed. "You're asking me to be objective?"

Snow White shrugged. "You've always been good at it before, and like you said, _you_ aren't dealing with two versions of reality in your head."

"So, hypothetically, if you came to me and said that you suddenly realized that you had a child, and that child was approximately your age and also your roommate and friend, then I would probably, hypothetically say, 'It's a really complicated situation; so don't be so hard on yourself when you can't fix everything right away'."

Snow smiled and asked, "Anything else?"

Emma was quiet for a few moments and then added, "Yeah, I'd tell you everything will be okay, and then I would encourage you to drink...a lot."

Snow White laughed. "That's good advice."

"Thanks."

"You're a good friend."

"So are you. Actually, you're the best friend I've ever had. How's that for irony?"

Snow White started to cry.

"Crap. Wait. Please don't cry. I take back all the touchy-feely stuff I just said."

Snow shook her head and wiped the tears out of her eyes. "I cry a lot. I did as Mary Margaret too. I'm sorry that makes you uncomfortable, but get over it."

"You know, you're a lot more blunt now than you were before."

"Am I?"

"Yes, the words 'get over it' never came out of Mary Margaret's mouth."

Snow took a few moments to process this and then asked, "How else have I changed?"

Emma thought about her question for awhile and then replied, "You seem more confident, more self-assured. It's as if you've already proven to yourself that you can handle life. It always seemed as if Mary Margaret thought she wasn't good enough."

"Except with you."

"What do you mean, 'except with me'?" Emma asked.

"Mary Margaret was always confident that she was good enough for you," Snow White said. "And now, that's now the one area in my life where I feel completely inadequate. I don't know what to do, Emma."

"Are you telling me that as a friend or as a, um...mother?"

She shrugged, "Both, neither, I don't know. I'm figuring all of this out as I go."

They walked in silence for a few minutes before Emma asked, "Can I talk to Mary Margaret for a moment?"

Snow White laughed, "Okay, now I definitely sound like I have multiple personality disorder."

"Seriously," Emma said. "I need my friend, the one that's not my mother or a fairytale character."

"What is it, Emma?" she asked.

"Mary Margaret, what do I do?"

Snow thought about what she would have said to Emma when she was just Mary Margaret. "Keep doing what you're doing," she told her. "Keep being honest. And, Emma, give her a chance for both of your sakes. No matter what she did in the past, you deserve to get to know her."

Emma smiled. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Snow White and Emma continued to walk deeper and deeper into the mushroom forest, completely unaware of what danger lay ahead.


	9. Vines, Mice, and Other Dangers

**Vines, Mice, and Other Dangers**

_Emma_

Emma sneezed loudly. She had never been a graceful sneezer, a fact which had irked her to no end growing up. Nothing was more embarrassing than being in a quiet roomful of people and startling them with a sneeze.

"Bless you," Mary Margaret said.

"Thanks," Emma said rubbing her eyes. "I think I'm allergic to something in this place...probably the giant mushrooms."

"Are you going to be okay stopping here for the night?" Mary Margaret asked.

"Yeah, I doubt the pollen count is going to kill me. Plus, I'm exhausted."

"So am I," Snow admitted. "We should be out of this forest by tomorrow, and then we shouldn't be far from the Queen of Heart's castle."

Emma stretched out on the ground, trying to get comfortable. "Hey, isn't the Queen of Hearts the one who's always chopping off people's heads?"

"Probably," Snow said, "but in the Enchanted Forest she was known for something far worse than that."

"What could possibly be worse than having your head chopped off?" Emma asked.

"Having your heart ripped out of your body while you're still alive."

Emma's eyes widened, "And on that note, I'm going to sleep and hope I don't have nightmares."

Snow White smiled at her, "Sweet dreams, then."

"You too," Emma said awkwardly and then rolled on her side. No one had ever said that to her growing up. To Emma, it was one of those phrases that only parents said. It was strange those simple words were enough to awaken old desires and make her heart ache.

As usual, Emma fell quickly and deeply asleep. She didn't have nightmares or dreams that night, but Emma also didn't sleep for long before she was awakened by what felt like whiskers on her face.

"Cheshire," Emma growled and then opened her eyes. It wasn't the Cheshire Cat, but a little white mouse dressed in humble clothing.

"Ah!" Emma pushed him off of her and rolled away. She was not proud of her irrational fear of mice, but Wonderland was not the place she planned on conquering that particular phobia.

The mouse jumped up and down and pointed his paw at Snow White, who to Emma's horror she saw was wrapped tightly in giant vines. They looked like they were strangling her.

"Mary Margaret!" Emma ran over to her friend and shook her. She didn't wake up. "Snow!"

One of the smaller vines started to snake around Emma's hand. She pulled free, which left a giant gash down her arm.

"Agh!" Emma yelped in pain as blood trickled down her hand.

"Fire," the mouse squeaked.

"What?" Emma asked and didn't for a moment stop to consider she was talking to a mouse or that the mouse was talking to her for that matter.

"Fire repels it."

"That's it," Emma thought. "The moment I get back to Storybrooke, I'm getting a freaking lighter."

"Use your magic!" the mouse screamed.

"How do you know I have...oh, never mind. I don't know how do it," Emma cried helplessly.

"It's inside of you, Your Highness. You have to concentrate to bring it out. Clear your mind. Chanel your thoughts and emotions, and will it to happen."

"This is ridiculous! Snow White, wake up!" She didn't move, and Emma was afraid she'd stopped breathing.

"You are not going to kill her," she yelled at the plant and then grabbed a sword and hacked at the tendrils. She didn't make a dent.

Tears of frustration and fear rolled down her face. "Fire," she thought, "I have to start a fire."

A large vine wove around Emma's feet and pulled her to the ground. Emma closed her eyes and placed her hands on the vine. "Concentrate," Emma told herself. Just like before, she felt an uncontrollable, immense rush of energy, but this time she channeled it through her hands. Emma opened her eyes and was shocked to see that her fingers were glowing red. The vine shrieked at her touch and loosened its grip on her legs enough for Emma to slip away.

She scrambled back to Mary Margaret and placed her hands on the vines that were continuing to choke her. Like before, Emma's hands began to glow and the vines started to relax, but then to Emma's dismay, they quickly constricted tighter than before. Snow White groaned.

"Don't worry," Emma said. The tone of her voice was not very convincing. "I'm going to get you out of this."

Emma reached deep inside herself and forced herself to push away her fear. She could do this. She didn't have a choice. Little sparks started to jump from her hands. It was better, but it wasn't enough. "More," she thought. "I have to do more."

Emma pointed her hands away from Mary Margaret towards the base of one of the vines. "Come on!" she shouted and then to her astonishment, flames began to shoot from her hands. Before she knew it every part of her body was producing bursts of fire until Emma looked like a human fireball.

Amazingly, she wasn't burned.

The fire did its work quickly, spreading from vine to vine and then to the underbrush and the towering mushrooms which smoked like chimneys, quickly turning the air black. The vines that had once held Snow White in a death vice had vanished, but now there was a new, bigger problem. Emma might be fireproof, but Mary Margaret was not.

No longer on fire, Emma shook Snow White once more. "Wake up! Come one. You have to wake up!" But she didn't, and to her dismay, Emma still couldn't tell if Snow White was breathing.

Wrapping her arms around her, Emma started to drag Mary Margaret away from the flames, but she wasn't going fast enough. If the fire didn't get them, then the smoke would. Emma silently wished for rain.

As if on cue, there was thunder.

Emma felt herself collapse and begin to lose consciousness but not before feeling cool drops of water fall upon her face and hands.

Blackness overwhelmed her.

[break]

_Special Thanks: _This chapter wouldn't have been nearly as good had it not been for the great advice of miley-avril. Thanks again! If you're enjoying this story, then you should check out one of hers called "Once Upon a Time, in a Land Far, Far Away".


	10. Timothy

**Timothy**

_Snow White_

Snow White's whole body ached. _"Where am I,"_ she wondered as she blinked open her eyes and squinted against the sunlight. Someone's arm was wrapped around her. It was Emma. That was strange, but even stranger was she didn't remember falling asleep in the place she now found herself.

"Emma?"

No response.

"Emma," Snow White said louder this time, suddenly worried that something might be wrong.

"She all right," a high pitched voice said. "She's just sleeping off the effects of using magic."

Snow sat up and searched for whomever or whatever was speaking to her.

"Down here."

Looking down, Snow White saw that it was a mouse.

"Hello," she said.

"Hello, Your Majesty."

"Who are you?" Snow asked.

The mouse bowed and said, "My name is, Timothy, Your Majesty. I was sent by Rupert the Rabbit to follow you and see if you are successful with your mission, and then I am to report to Her Royal Magnificent Majesty and one true Queen of Wonderland, the White Queen."

"That's quite a mouthful," Snow White said with a smile.

"A mouthful of what, Your Majesty?"

"Never mind. So, you were following us, but then what happened? How did I get here?"

"Your daughter carried you," the mouse said.

"Carried me?" Snow repeated. "Why did she carry me?"

"She didn't want you to die in the fire she started with her magic."

Snow surveyed her surroundings more carefully and noticed scorch marks on some of the mushrooms. How had she slept through that?

Emma groaned and then coughed.

"Emma, are you okay?"

Emma slowly opened her eyes. "Yeah, are you okay?"

"I think so. Timothy said that you pulled me out of a forest fire."

"Who's Timothy?"

"Me," the mouse squeaked.

"Oh, it's you," Emma said, by this point talking mice weren't all that strange to her. After all, what was a talking mouse compared to an insane, sometimes bodiless, other times headless cat. "I'm glad to see you got out of there alive too."

"So...you started the fire with magic?" Snow asked her.

"Yep, I guess I went a little overboard, but everyone is alive. No harm done."

"I guess that's one way to build a fire," Snow mumbled. "You know, I could teach you how to do that without having to use magic...or create forest fires."

"Build a fire?" Emma asked and then shot the mouse a look. "You told her that I started a forest fire, but you didn't tell her the part where she was almost plant food?"

The mouse shrugged his little shoulders and said, "It wasn't relevant to the current conversation."

Emma rolled her eyes.

"What's this about plant food?" she asked Emma.

Emma told Snow White the whole story starting from when Timothy woke her up in the forest the night before.

"That would explain why I have all these bruises," Snow White said. "Thank you, Emma, for saving my life."

"It was the honorable thing to do," Emma said flippantly.

Snow looked at her shocked and asked, "What did you say?"

"It was just a joke," she said defensively. "Apparently, it wasn't a very funny one."

"No," Snow said, about to explain but then decided it would take too long. "Never mind. Do you think you can walk? Personally, I don't want to stay in this forest much longer."

"Agreed," Emma said, taking the hand Snow offered to pull her up.

"Emma! What happened?"

Emma looked down at where the vine had cut her the night before. It had turned an odd shade of purple. "Gross," she said and then touched her arm gently. "It doesn't hurt, though," she told Snow; "so that's good news."

"You're going to die," Timothy said gravely.

Both women looked at the mouse in surprise.

"I hope you're speaking figuratively," Emma said.

The mouse shook his head.

"What do you mean?" Snow asked the mouse.

"Does nothing die where you come from?" the mouse asked in a confused tone.

"Of course, things die," Emma said, "and so do people. The question is why do you think I'm going to die in the near enough future for you to make that statement?"

"Ah," the mouse said once Emma had clarified. "Your arm has been infected with a venom that kills its victims within a few days of contact."

Emma's mouth dropped. "Are you sure?" she asked.

The mouse nodded.

"There has to be a way to fix this," Snow White said. "Wonderland is run by magic. Can't magic cure her?"

The mouse shook his head sadly.

"I'm not just going to sit back and watch her die."

"Thanks," Emma said attempting to be humorous. No one laughed. "Okay, also not funny."

"There might be a way," Timothy told Snow.

"What?" she asked him.

"If there is a way, then Hezekiah will know of it. You should speak with him."

"Where is Hezekiah?" Snow White asked.

"He lives at the top of the highest mountain in Wonderland."

"Of course he does," Emma said dryly. "I'm assuming he doesn't have a cell phone."

The mouse looked confused. "I - "

"Don't answer that," Snow told Timothy and then asked, "Can you lead us to him? "When the mouse nodded, Snow picked him up and placed him on her shoulder.

"What is it with you and animals?" Emma asked Snow White.

Snow White looked at Emma with a puzzled expression. _"What is that supposed to mean?"_ she wondered.

"Never mind," Emma told her, and they began their long journey to the mountain.


	11. Catching the Cure

**Catching the Cure**

_Emma_

As they walked toward the tallest mountain in Wonderland, Emma trailed behind Snow White. Thankfully, Snow White recognized Emma's need to be alone - that or she was too preoccupied with the possibility that her best-friend/long-lost daughter was about to die to try bonding with her. Either way, Emma was happy to have time to feel sorry for herself in peace. After all that had happened, from fighting a dragon to escaping a forest fire, death by infection somehow felt very lame and depressing. For crying out loud she had magic now, but it was useless. Emma had tried to use it to heal herself. The attempts had resulted in a few explosions and a hovering, angry roommate. Not to mention the fact that using magic now left Emma feeling drained and extremely dizzy. Come to think of it, she felt dizzy all the time now, which was a realization that she was probably better off keeping to herself at the moment.

Snow White and her new mouse friend, Timothy, were perfectly content to talk amongst themselves. Emma got the feeling that the mouse was not accustomed to so much positive attention from a human - and a queen no less. She had heard him vow his undying fealty to Snow White twice now. Emma got the feeling that the White Queen might not be too happy about that. She kept her mouth shut, though. Who was she to caution him about the perils of Wonderland?

"Tut, tut, tut. You don't look so good, Pretty Willingless."

"Hello, Cheshire," Emma grumbled. "Thanks for the warning about the carnivorous plant, by the way."

"Hehehe. You did well without my warning. It's a shame you're going to die."

"I'm not dead yet."

"That is a matter of perspective, Pretty Willingless."

"Emma?" Snow stopped and turned around, "Who are you talking to?"

_"Is she blind?"_ Emma wondered and pointed at the cat.

Snow walked over to her, continuing to look around as if she couldn't see Cheshire.

"Who were you talking to?" she repeated.

Emma looked at Cheshire, who was, of course, grinning from ear to ear. "You can't see him?"

"Who?"

"The cat, Cheshire," Emma told her and then looked for help from Timothy.

"I do not see him either, Your Highness."

"Poor, poor Pretty Willingless. Is she seeing what others cannot see, or has she gone as mad as the Hatter? Is there a difference?"

"I'm not crazy," Emma told the cat and then realized how ridiculous she must look to Snow White and Timothy. She wanted to kick herself when she saw fear in Snow's eyes.

Snow White placed her hand on Emma's forehead. "Emma, you're burning up."

"I'm fine," Emma said, meanwhile trying to ignore Cheshire who was now juggling his own head. "This is all your fault," she told him.

"Emma, you're hallucinating," Snow said.

"Alternatively, Cheshire is toying with us, which I know sounds incredibly out of character for him," Emma offered, but her comment did nothing to wipe the concern from Snow White's face. Emma sighed and then said, "For the sake of what sanity I have left, can we please just pretend I'm right?"

"Of course, but from now on why don't we walk together?"

Emma tried to hide her disappointment. _"So much for a peaceful pity party,"_ she thought.

[break]

As the day progressed, things grew even stranger. Of course, deciding whether or not she was hallucinating while in Wonderland was like deciding if she'd gone blind in the middle of the night. Still, Emma didn't ask Snow White if she saw things like the grass moving like waves on the ocean or if Timothy had suddenly transformed into a raccoon with two heads. "Surely," Emma thought, "there is a perfectly rational explanation for all of this. Isn't the fact that I'm questioning my sanity proof that I haven't lost my mind?"

The Cheshire Cat appeared once they reached the foot of the mountainside. Emma ignored him as she had done since their earlier encounter, which led to Snow White hoving even more than normal. Real or illusion, she didn't want to talk to him.

"Hello," Snow White said.

"Wait, you can see him now?" Emma asked, hoping this wasn't some kind of trick of hers to see how far gone Emma really was. She didn't seem that sneaky, but then again if anyone had told her a week ago that her roommate was capable of killing someone with nothing more than a stick, she would have referred them to Dr. Hopper.

"Yes, Emma, I see him."

_"That's a relief,"_ Emma thought but didn't say anything. She still wasn't sure she trusted that this wasn't a trap.

"It is good to be seen by my fair Pretty Willings and by you too little mouse."

"Are you here to help us?" Snow White asked.

"Perhaps," he answered.

"Here we go again," Emma said. Her three companions ignored her.

"Do you know how to save Emma's life?"

"Sadly, I do not."

"Can Hezekiah help me?" Emma asked.

Cheshire did a backwards flip and then landed on Emma's head. "Yes and no," he said.

"Explain," Snow said.

"The 'yes' is for Her Majesty; the 'no' is for Her Highness."

"But we need Hezekiah to help Emma, not me."

"Hezekiah is the key to an answer without magic," Cheshire told them, "but Hezekiah will not stand in the presence of magic. You, alone, can be cured, Your Majesty."

"But...oh, I see."

"I don't," Emma said. "How does this help us?"

"If Hezekiah will give me the cure, then I can bring it back to you," Snow said.

"So I can't go with you up the mountain?" Emma asked and tried not to sound as relieved as she felt. She wasn't sure she would be able to stand much longer, let alone scale the tallest mountain in all of Wonderland.

Snow White shook her head. "As much as I don't want to be separated from you, I'm afraid it's our only choice."

"According to him," Emma pointed out, and both women looked over at the cat who was now sitting on the ground in a very intimate stage of grooming himself.

"What choice do we have but to trust him, Emma?"

"Not to trust him," Emma offered.

"I'm going," Snow White told her and then added, "alone. But first, we need to find somewhere safe for you to stay while I'm gone. There's a cave I saw on the way here. Did you see it, Emma?"

Emma wasn't about to admit that if she had in fact seen a cave, then she probably thought it was an elephant or something else even more bizarre than that. "Um, I can't remember," she said.

"Timothy, do you know what I'm talking about?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Then will you please take Emma there and watch out for her until I get back?"

Emma was lucid enough at this point to be insulted that Snow White had just asked a mouse to babysit her. "And I thought trusting Sidney Glass was as low as I could go," she mumbled.

"Emma!"

"Oh, no offense, Timothy."

"None taken, Your Highness."

Emma shot Snow White a look that said, "See?"

Snow shook her head and then placed Timothy on Emma's shoulder. Emma glanced at the mouse and said to him silently, _"If you bite or scratch me, all bets are off."_

"Okay, Emma, give me your hand," she told her.

Emma held out her hand but then jerked it away just as quickly when Snow took out a her knife.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What are you doing?"

"You heard what Cheshire said. Hezekiah will cure me, but he has to have something to cure. I have to be infected, and seeing as there are no deadly vines around here, your blood will have to do."

Emma looked at the cat who nodded with glee that this was what needed to happen. "Mary Margaret, Snow White - whatever. Are you out of your mind?"

"It's the only way," Snow said.

"No, no, no, you don't know what you're saying -"

"You know I do. Emma, it's the only way."

"I can't let you risk your life for me."

"It's my life to risk, and I can't - I won't - let you die."

"What if we both die?" Emma asked.

"I need you to have faith in me, Emma."

"This is a really bad idea," Emma told her but was too exhausted to argue further. She held out her hand and closed her eyes, hardly feeling the pain in her hand over the fear in her heart. "What if I lose her...again?" Emma asked herself and then thought bitterly, "Don't worry. You'll be dead long before she is."

After cutting herself, Snow clasped Emma's hand and forced Emma to look at her. "I'm coming back."

Emma nodded, wanting desperately to believe her. Snow White hugged her tightly and then let her go.

"Take care of her," Snow said to the mouse.

Timothy puffed out his little chest and said, "I will defend her with my life."

"Let's hope you don't have to," Emma told him as she watched her friend, go.

"Yes, let us hope, Your Highness."

Emma smiled, understanding the hidden meaning behind his words. Maybe Wonderland would change her opinion of mice after all.


	12. Mistaken Identities

**Mistaken Identities**

_Snow White_

Her hand hurt, her brain was beginning to buzz, and to top it all off, it was getting colder by the minute. Snow White was not having the best day...or the best week for that matter. "Happily ever after, my ass," she said aloud. Her life had been nothing more than a series of one disaster after the other. It was as if the universe thought of her as its own personal play thing.

From a tree high above her fell a large heap of snow right onto her head, and Snow White decided at that moment that there must have been some sort of cosmic case of mistaken identity. Certainly, whomever or whatever doled out karma had gotten her confused with her step-mother, Regina. Now there was a person who deserved to have snow fall on top of her while climbing a mountain trying to save an estranged daughter who had contracted a deadly disease after accidently being transported to Wonderland.

Snow White was now determined to save her daughter and get them back to Storybrooke, if no better reason than to correct the universe's mistake. "That bitch is going down," Snow White said, and then laughed when she remembered Emma calling her the "Housewife Princess". "If you could only see me now," Snow thought and then sobered at the thought of her dying daughter. Even if they somehow survived Wonderland, Snow White feared that they would never have the kind of relationship she had hoped and dreamed for. They might not even be friends anymore.

Alone, with no Emma to make feel uncomfortable, Snow cried for what she had lost and for what she didn't know how to regain. Her daughter had been stolen from her, and she could never get those years back. She would never know what it felt like to watch her child take her first steps. She would never hold her in her lap. She would never know the pride and the joy of watching her grow into a woman. She would never know...

"Why are you crying, Snow?" a voice spoke that was as familiar to her as her own.

Snow turned, and there before her was the only person in the world she wanted to see right then. "Charming?"

"I'm here," he said and then kissed her.

"Wait," Snow said, pulling away.

"What's wrong?"

"You aren't really here, are you?" she asked him, not wanting to hear his answer.

Charming smiled at her sadly, "No, but does that really matter?"

Snow shook her head asked, "Will you stay with me?"

"Always," he said, taking her hand in his as they continued up the mountain.

Snow was surprised at how real it felt - how real he felt. "I've missed you," she told him. "I wish you could really be here. I've needed you so much."

"Because of Emma?" he asked.

Snow nodded and said, "Yes, because of her, but also because of me. I have these two people inside of me with different memories and feelings. It's like I don't know who I am anymore."

Charming let go of her hand and held her face in his hands, saying, "You are Snow White. Yes, you were also Mary Margaret, but those are Snow White's memories - Snow White's feelings."

"Thank you," Snow said, almost forgetting that she was in reality talking to herself.

They continued on together, not talking, just enjoying each other's company. Or Snow White was enjoying her own company. Either way, it didn't matter to her as long as she got to be with him.

All too soon, Charming said, "You're almost to the top; I have to go now."

"No, please don't leave me."

Charming smiled and said, "You can do this. You can save our daughter and bring her home. I have faith in you."

Snow White leaned forward and kissed him as his image faded into the falling snow. With renewed confidence she said, "I will find you," and then finished her climb to the top of the mountain.

When she could climb no further, Snow White spotted a small cottage, which she assumed belonged to Hezekiah. Snow knocked on the door.

"Come in," a familiar voice said.

Snow opened the door and was shocked to see the Cheshire Cat.

"You!" she said suddenly furious. "You made me climb all the way up here, when you could have helped us all along?"

The cat wore a puzzled expression, "My dear child, I did not make you come see me. You came to see me of your own accord."

"You're Hezekiah?" Snow asked again.

"I am," he said. "And who might you be?"

"I've had enough of your games, Cheshire. Now tell me what the cure is."

The cat now looked sorrowful, which surprised Snow White. She didn't realize he was capable of expressing sadness. "I believe I understand what has happened here," he said. "I still don't know you're name, and I don't know what cure you speak of. As I said, my name is Hezekiah, and it is growing more apparent to me by the moment that you have met my vexing, twin brother, Cheshire."

"You're twin?" Snow asked incredulously.

"Yes, as much as I wish it were not true, our mother tells me that he is, in fact, my brother. You're earlier confusion only further proves her claim."

Snow suddenly felt foolish. The next time she saw the real Cheshire Cat, Emma would be the least of his worries. "Forgive me. My name is Snow White, and I have contracted what I have been told is an incurable disease from some kind of man-eating vine. I heard you might be able to help."

"Ah, you must have paid a visit to the Mushroom Forest. It is a dangerous place indeed."

"Yes, I don't plan on visiting it again anytime soon. Do you have or know of a cure?"

"I am the cure," Hezekiah told her and then reached out his paw. Taking Snow White's injured hand, he licked it and then looked back up at her.

Snow felt a warmth pulse through her entire body. She was no longer cold or hungry or tired. Snow White felt very...alive.

"You healed me," Snow said in awe.

"Yes," Hezekiah said, "and you're blood will cure your daughter as well."

"How did you...I'm sorry for the deception. Cheshire alluded that you didn't like to be around people and creatures with magic."

Hezekiah smiled sadly and said, "My brother alludes to many things, but this is not the case. He and I were cursed long ago when we were young and foolish and used magic for our own selfish gain. His punishment is the madness that comes from becoming a being completely made up of magic. My punishment is the inability to see, speak, hear, feel, or taste anyone or anything that has magic."

"So, the two of you can never see each other again?" Snow White said, understanding that the real curse was not allowing the brothers to be together. "That's awful."

"Never is a very long time. Don't be dismayed, for all curses must eventually come to an end. My brother and I will one day be together again. Let us hope we will have learned our lesson by then."

Snow White leaned over and kissed him on his furry head and then scratched him behind his ear causing him to purr. "Thank you, Hezekiah."

"You are quite welcome, Snow White. If you see my brother again, will you do me a great kindness and deliver a message to him from me?"

"Of course," Snow said. "What is it?"

"Tell him that the next time he wants to hear from me he should simply send a messenger and not create one of these dramatic, life-threatening situations to bring someone to speak to me."

Snow White's mouth dropped. Cheshire had done all of it. He was probably the reason the vines had attacked them in the first place.

"I am going to kill him," Snow said evenly.

"My brother and I are immortal," Hezekiah told her.

"Good, then he'll suffer longer."

Hezekiah laughed, reminding Snow White a little of his brother. "Of all the visits I have had, this has certainly been one of the most enjoyable ones. Now, hurry, my dear. You're daughter doesn't have much time left."


	13. Curing the Caught

**Curing the Caught**

_Emma_

Emma stumbled into what she prayed was a cave. Her brain was telling her that she was walking up to a scary-looking, pink elephant, but Timothy assured her it was, in fact, a cave. Pain shot through her body, running up and down her nervous system. Then to her horror, she began to grow numb.

Cheshire said something, but Emma didn't understand him under the best of circumstances. Perhaps she was imagining it, but Emma thought that she heard actual concern in his voice.

"Now I know I've gone crazy," Emma said to herself or perhaps aloud. She couldn't be sure at this point.

"Your Highness, I think you should lay down," Timothy told her.

"Please, call me Emma," she pleaded. Emma didn't know why, but she needed to hear something familiar, something real. This royal nonsense made her want to throw up more than the infection burning through her brain.

"I think you should lay down, Emma."

She couldn't help but smile at how sweet it was that the mouse had difficulty saying her name. Emma stumbled as she felt the ground beneath her shift. "Did you feel that?" she asked the mouse.

"No Your...Emma."

"I think you're right, Timothy. I do need to lay down." Emma silently added, _"before I really embarrass myself and fall down."_

The room started to spin, and Emma's head felt like it was on fire. She closed her eyes to shut out the madness but that only led to a wave of images that flashed through her mind...

She was at Graham's funeral watching the casket lower into the ground inch by horrifying inch. Emma could do nothing when he had collapsed in her arms. By the time an ambulance had arrived, he was dead, but the paramedics still had to pull her off of him. For some reason, Emma thought that if she just tried hard enough, she could will him back to life. She could cheat death. Regina hadn't allowed Henry to go to the funeral, but nothing could stop Mary Margaret from being there, her arm wrapped around Emma the whole time, as if trying to protect her from the pain of it all. In a way, she had. It was the first time in Emma's long memory she hadn't been alone in her grief. It was a strange thing, not being alone...

Emma's view shifted. She was in jail after just having given birth to Henry. Only, she hadn't knowing his name or even his gender then. Emma's body still ached but not as much as her heart. Emma forced herself not to wonder, "What if?" The silence of the night was pierced by the cries of other women. At night, someone always cried, but it was never Emma. She would not cry tonight or any other night. She would not hope. She would not dream. She would survive...

Now she was eight, hiding behind a rack of shirts in her foster parents' closet. Her heart beat wildly in her chest as she heard her fourteen-year-old foster brother roar with anger in his search for her. Tears streamed down Emma's face as she rocked back and forth, clinging to her baby blanket. If she stayed where she was long enough, maybe he would give up. Emma shivered in the darkness...

There were voices...Mary Margaret's and one other voice not as familiar to her, but yet she still knew it somehow.

"Her Majesty is too late," the unfamiliar voice said.

"No!"

"Her Highness stopped breathing minutes ago. She's gone."

"You obviously don't know our family history," Emma heard her say and then she felt someone, presumably Mary Margaret, shake her.

"You can't die," Mary Margaret sobbed. "Do you hear me, Emma? I won't let you die."

Emma felt a sharp pain in her hand.

"Look, Timothy! She's bleeding. That means her heart is still beating."

Now she was being held, but Emma couldn't be sure if that was her reality or her past...

Emma felt an overwhelming physical sensation. Her eyes were open, but all she saw were blurred shapes. She was cold and hungry and...confused, but then she heard a voice she recognized. It made her feel better. Mary Margaret - no, Snow White - was holding her, but everything was wrong. Emma was...a baby?

"Goodbye, Emma," she heard her mother say.

Emma was now having an out of body, out of time, experience. Emma the adult, now watched as Snow White gave Emma the baby, over to Prince Charming. The moment James left, she watched as her friend start to cry like Emma had never seen anyone cry before. Her heart broke for this woman who had just lost everything. Emma reached out to her but was suddenly pulled away...

And then there was only darkness and the sound of Snow White's cries.

Emma's eyes opened, her world still blurred until she focused on the image above her. It was Mary Margaret. Emma felt her tears fall on her face.

"Please don't cry," Emma said, not knowing if she was talking to someone from the past or the present. Frankly, Emma didn't care.

Mary Margaret's eyes flew open. "Emma! Oh, Emma, I thought you were...but you're alive. How do you feel?"

Emma mentally assessed herself before responding and then said, "Surprisingly well, all things considered. My hand hurts like hell, though."

"Sorry about that."

Emma smiled. "You saved me. Thank you."

"It was the honorable thing to do," Snow said.

Emma stared at her friend curiously as Snow White suddenly burst into a fit of laughter. It hadn't been _that_ funny.

"Are you okay?" Emma asked her, concerned that perhaps after everything that had happened Snow White had finally lost her mind. No one would blame her if she did.

"Good to see my Pretty Willings alive and laughing," Cheshire said after appearing in their midst.

"You!" Snow White yelled, her mood changing faster than Emma had ever seen before. "How dare you show your smug, little face? Get out!"

"Um, don't we still need his help?" Emma asked. She was all for never seeing Cheshire again, but Emma wanted to see Henry more than she didn't want to see the cat.

"The Highness becomes the Willing, and the Majesty becomes the Un. Unwilling Majesty should listen her Willing daughter if she wants to get home."

There was a look of loathing on Snow White's face that Emma frankly found hysterical.

"Fine," Snow said. "Take us to the Queen of Hearts."

"Firstly, thirdly, seventhly, I must hear the message."

"He says to send a real messenger next time," Snow told him.

"Ah, yes," the cat replied, "but living messengers are so very hard to come by these days."

"Let me make something perfectly clear, Cat. Pull a stunt like that again, and no amount of magic is going to save you from me. Got that?" Snow White told him with a tone that until that moment had been reserved for her epic fights with Emma.

Emma was more than a little relieved to not be on the receiving end for once.

"Silly, silly Majesty. I have no other brother; so a stunt does not need pulling."

"He's not going to have a brother if you keep talking," Snow White threatened and then to Emma and Timothy said, "I'm done talking to this lunatic. Let's go meet the Queen of Hearts."

Emma shot a look at Timothy and said, "I think I missed something."


	14. Truce

**Truce**

_Snow White_

The closer they got to the Queen of Hearts' castle, the more worried Snow White became. According to Cheshire, the portal back to their world was in the queen's personal chambers, and even he was not brave enough or mad enough to follow them in there. There was only one way into the castle, and that was through the front gate. To get inside they either they had to be caught, or they had to request an audience with the Queen of Hearts. Snow White hoped the fake invitation the White Queen gave them would get them inside, not killed.

"You've been awfully quiet," Emma observed.

Snow White looked at Emma surprised. "I didn't know that you wanted to talk."

"I don't...unless you do. I mean, I don't like talking about...stuff, but you like talking. I guess what I'm trying to offer is a truce or at least a momentary ceasefire."

Snow White smiled at Emma. She loved this woman, everything about her, every stubborn, independent, loyal, humorous, evasive, caring, gentle bone in her body.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Emma asked awkwardly, kicking the ground as she walked.

"I love you, Emma."

"I, um...you too. Sorry. I'm not good at this."

"I know you love me," Snow White said and then added with a grin. "I mean, what's not to love?"

"See, it's comments like that that make it easy for me to imagine you growing up as spoiled princess."

"I prefer the word 'privileged' to 'spoiled'," Snow White said.

"I'll be you do."

"What were you like...as a child?" Snow White asked. She hated to press her luck by asking too much, but seeing as they might die very soon anyway, Snow figured that she might as well.

"I kept to myself," Emma told her. "I've always been shy. People, especially new people, intimidated me."

"Why?" Snow White asked.

"I don't know. Maybe it was growing up the way I did, or maybe that's just me."

"You don't seem like you have that problem anymore," Snow said, thinking of when they first met.

Emma laughed and said, "I'm glad I have you fooled."

"So you were - are - shy. What else?"

"Um, I liked school - nerdy, I know. I always got really good grades and followed the rules; so teachers liked me a lot. I think I liked the routine and structure. I usually didn't have that at home."

"Did you like to read?"

"Yes, but, ironically, I was never the fairytale-type. I was the kid who read the entire encyclopedia over the summer."

"You read the encyclopedia for fun?" Snow White asked.

Emma shrugged, "It's interesting. What about you as a kid? I bet you had lots of friends."

Snow White laughed and said, "I was actually alone most of the time. I didn't have any friends - not my age at least."

This surprised Emma. "Really? Why?"

"I was the king's daughter," Snow said simply. "The other children who grew up in the castle were told by their parents not to play with me. They weren't trying to be mean, but no one wanted to be the servant who had to explain to the king why their kid accidentally hurt the princess. I think my parents tried to help a couple of times by inviting one or two of them to play."

"Your parents set up play dates?" Emma asked with a smile.

"I guess you could call them that, but they never went well. The other child would usually stand in the corner, terrified that they would do or say the wrong thing."

"So, who did you play with?"

"Myself mainly...my parents...servants who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Oh, have you ever met the man who works at the hall of records?"

"The grey-haired guy with no personality?"

"Yep," Snow said.

"I think I met him when I was trying to track down those twins' father. Whoa, I just realized that they really are Hansel and Gretel. That's strange," Emma said and then asked, "So, what about the hall of records guy? Did you know him?"

Snow nodded. "He was my father's butler, and let's just say that he was pressured by me into more than one tea party."

Emma laughed loudly. It was a good sound. "I don't think I'll be able to look at him the same way again. I won't be able to look at anyone the same way again." She stopped smiling. "This is all so strange. What is it like knowing that you're a fairytale character?"

"You tell me. You're the daughter of fairytale characters, which, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but that makes you a fairytale character."

"Maybe it does, but I don't have any stories written about me like you do. Everyone doesn't know my name."

Snow White smiled at her and said, "Everyone from my world knows who you are and what you've done. Years from now, you'll be the story they tell their children as they go to sleep at night."

"I don't want that," Emma said. "Most of the time, I wish I could just be invisible so I could live my life in peace."

"Greatness isn't born, Emma; it's made. People don't know who I am as much as what I stand for."

"And what is that?" Emma asked.

"Hope that in the end, good will always win."

"How can you be so sure?" Emma asked. "Look at everything that has happened to you, to me, to everyone from the Enchanted Forest. How can you honestly believe that good will win?"

"Because after everything that has happened, I still get to be with you here and now. Emma, you are my happily ever after. Don't you know that?"

For awhile Emma didn't say anything, but then she asked again, "How can you know that good will win?"

"My father always told me that it's the nature of good to win and the nature of evil to lose. If good and bad were on equal grounds, then maybe evil would have a chance at winning, but they aren't. The definition of evil, Emma, is trying to get something good the wrong way. In the end, everyone wants the same good things, and people are evil because they don't know how to get something good except in the wrong way."

"I'm not sure I'm following you," Emma said.

"Take Regina, for example. She caused so much pain and misery not because she likes pain and misery but because she wants to be happy. Being happy is a good thing. We are made to want to be happy. We are made to be loved. Somewhere along the line, Regina lost the hope that she could be happy or loved unless she stole it from everyone else. She continues to try to get good the wrong way. That's why she is the queen of evil."

"If I tell you something, will you promise not to cry?" Emma asked.

Snow White looked at her curiously and nodded.

"You are a great friend, Mary Margaret; but, Snow White, you would have been an amazing mother."

Snow White didn't cry but instead told her, "You _are_ an amazing mother, Emma."


	15. Mute

**Mute**

_Emma_

"Ouch!" Emma said after pricking her finger. She was attempting to sew a patch onto the blouse she would don once they went to see the Queen of Hearts.

"Are you okay?" Snow asked.

"I'll live. Explain to me again how this is a _good_ idea," Emma asked her. They had arrived outside the Queen's castle and were helping Timothy finish their costumes. The little mouse was actually quite handy with a needle and thread. Who knew?

"I never claimed that it was a good idea, but it's the only one that I have, Emma. So, unless you can come up with a better one, please stop complaining."

Ignoring her, Emma said to Timothy, "I'm not complaining. I just don't understand why I'm the one who has to pretend to be a servant."

"I would think that would be obvious, Your Highness," Timothy said as he measured some fabric.

"Call me Emma; and why is it obvious?"

"Two reasons," Snow said. "First, you don't know how to act like a courtier -"

"Which I think makes me a better person than you," Emma interrupted. Teasing her was a welcome distraction from what they were about to face. Furthermore, if Snow White was irritated, then she would be less likely to start an intensely emotional and deep conversation. Tricking Emma into opening up was a gift that Snow White seemed to have inherited from Mary Margaret, or Mary Margaret had inherited it from Snow White, or...whatever.

"Second," Snow continued, "you refuse to wear a dress."

"I didn't say that I wouldn't wear 'a dress'," Emma retorted. "I said that I would wear that hideous thing you're calling a dress. There is a significant difference."

"It's the latest fashion in the court, Your Hi...er...Emma."

Emma winked at the mouse to let him know she was only teasing.

"Just do me a favor," Snow said, "and don't speak once we're beyond the castle walls. Servants don't speak unless they are spoken to."

"And if I am spoken to?" Emma asked innocently.

"Pretend to be mute," Snow said.

"But what if I have something really, really important to say? For example, I think that someone needs to tell these people that they all look like circus clowns." When Snow White didn't respond, Emma added, "Then someone needs to explain to them what circus clowns are."

Snow White looked like she was about to stab Emma with the needle she was holding. "I have a brilliant idea, Emma. Why don't you start practicing being mute right now so you'll have it figured out by the time we're inside?"

Emma smiled at Snow White, not saying anything as a way of response, but thinking to herself, _"Game, set, match. I win."_

There would be no discussions of innermost thoughts or feelings about family dynamics in the past, present, or future for at least the next hour. Emma sighed with relief. She hadn't had a moment alone since...since she was attacked by that thing Cheshire called a crocotta. Watching Snow White fight him was a moment that Emma would never forget. It had been like something straight out of a action film - not a fairytale book.

Emma studied Snow White and thought about all the different facets there were to her. She hadn't been lying when she said that she would have been an amazing mother. Maybe she would get the chance someday. Though Mary Margaret had never told Emma that she wanted kids, it was easy to see that it was a dream of hers. Emma wanted her friend to have that, and it wasn't as if she and David couldn't have children.

It suddenly dawned on Emma that their children would her siblings. She frowned when she realized that selfishly, she didn't want Snow White to have another child. In fact, even the thought made Emma want to cry. A part of her feared that if Snow White had a real child, then she would stop trying with Emma. Who would blame her? Emma was her age - possibly older; she didn't even want to broach that subject. Also, Emma was by her own admission closed off to a fault. A new child, on the other hand, wouldn't be broken. A new child wouldn't be her.

Emma was so confused by her feelings that if she could physically rip them out of her, she would. How could she want something for Mary Margaret that she desperately didn't want Snow White to have? It didn't make any sense, and when had she started wanting her friend to be anything more than that? This was all Snow White's fault for constantly placing the thought in her mind - the thought that maybe, just maybe, she could have a mother.

She stared at Snow White again. This could be her mother. This woman might actually be able to love her like a daughter - no, not _like_ a daughter. Despite everything, and no matter what they each felt, Emma could no longer deny the simple truth that she was Snow White's daughter. _"And she wants me. She's insane to even try, but she wants me."_

But would Snow White still want her if she had other children who weren't so complicated?

Snow, who must have felt Emma watching her, suddenly looked up before Emma had a chance to look away.

"Emma, what's wrong?" Snow asked. "You look like you're about to cry."

_"Damn it!" _Emma thought. Mary Margaret had done it to her again, and they hadn't even been talking. Was there no getting away from this woman and her constant prying?

"I was just thinking about something," Emma said.

"What is it?" she asked with a concerned look.

Emma sighed. There was no way in hell she was going to tell her what was really on her mind; so, she reverted to Plan A - drive Snow White crazy.

"Can I talk to other servants?" Emma asked.

Timothy snickered. Snow White looked confused and then irritated and then really irritated.

"Mute means don't talk to anyone - at all." Snow White shook her head and then started sewing again."

_"That was close,"_ Emma thought and then went back to the maddening task of trying to thread a needle.


	16. Badbye

**Badbye**

_Snow White_

"Don't be nervous," Emma told Mary Margaret. "We can do this."

"What makes you think I'm nervous?" She asked Emma.

"You're fiddling with that ring of yours. It was always a telltale sign for Mary Margaret."

"Oh," she said, dropping her hands to her sides. "I never noticed." For someone as walled off as Emma, she never ceased to amaze Mary Margaret by what she was perceptive about, especially when it came to her. "It's my wedding ring, by the way," she told Emma. "It's strange that I wore it all this time and never knew."

"It's very pretty," Emma said, studying the ring with renewed interest.

Snow smiled, "It's how I met your...It's how I met James."

"Really? How is that?" she asked.

Snow laughed and said, "I stole it from him."

Emma looked confused and asked, "You stole your own wedding ring?"

"Not on purpose."

"You stole something on accident?"

"No, I stole things on purpose, but I didn't mean to specifically steal the ring. It was with the other stuff that I took."

"Why were you taking his things in the first place?"

"I, well, that's a long story going back to issues between Regina and I. Suffice to say, it was all one big misunderstanding that ended up changing my life."

"Ah," Emma said, making it clear she had no idea what Snow White was really talking about. "That's the story of my life too. Regina and I have issues, which eventually leads to me stealing things - classified documents, her clothing, her son...but I haven't stooped to stealing her jewelry...yet."

"The ring didn't belong to Regina," Snow tried to explain, all the while once again missing Emma's joke. "It belonged to James, but I didn't know that until he came after me for stealing his stuff."

"That's an interesting way to meet your future husband. It's amazing that things didn't go smoothly after that."

"But...oh, very funny," Snow White said sarcastically.

"Don't be insulted. Personally, I think your real story is a much better than what I grew up hearing."

"What story did you grow up hearing?" It was still a new concept to Snow White that everyone in the world beyond Storybrooke knew who she was and at the same time thought she wasn't real. _"This must be how Santa Clause feels_,_"_ Snow White thought, and then felt ridiculous. Everyone knew that Santa Clause wasn't real.

"There isn't much of a story to tell," Emma said. "One day Princess Snow White is sitting outside happily cleaning something. She's singing to herself and to all the little animals when -"

"Is that why you asked what my deal was with animals?" Snow asked.

"Shh...we can talk about your odd behaviors later, but right now I'm telling a story...So, Snow White is talking - I mean singing - to herself when along comes a handsome prince. He instantly falls in love with her, and then after Snow White has almost died a couple of times and the Evil Queen falls off a cliff, he shows up again. He kisses her, which wakes her up, and they live happily ever after. The End."

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard," Snow said. "Though I like the part where the Evil Queen fell off a cliff."

"Now that I've met her, so do I," Emma said and then asked, "If that's your wedding ring, then why are you still wearing it on the wrong finger?"

"I don't know," Snow White said, suddenly realizing that she was twirling the ring on her finger again. "I should probably move it over. It's just...a big step." She took off the ring and stared. There were so many memories attached to it, but they weren't all Snow White's memories. Many were Mary Margaret's.

"What's a big step?" Emma asked. "You're already married."

That was a good point. "It doesn't have anything to do with my marriage," Snow White told her. "I know this is wrong, but I feel like if I put the ring on the finger Snow White wore it on, then Mary Margaret will really be gone. I don't know if I'm ready for that. It's as if I'm saying that for twenty-eight years, my life was a lie - that I was a lie."

"You weren't a lie," Emma said. "You were just as real then as you are now. It was just a different set of circumstances."

"You think so?"

"Yeah, and I also think you're overanalyzing this. It's actually very simple. Tell me, Mary Margaret, are you Snow White?"

"Yes, but -"

"It's a yes or no question," Emma told her. "Are you Snow White?"

"Yes, I am Snow White."

"Is Snow White married?"

"Yes."

"Is that Snow White's wedding ring?"

"Yes."

"Then take a deep breath and put your wedding ring on so that when we finally do get back to Storybrooke, James won't get his feelings hurt."

Mary Margaret stared at the ring in her hand, suddenly paralyzed with doubt - not about who she loved but about who she was. She looked at Emma with what must have been a hopeless expression.

"Oh, for crying out loud, Mary Margaret. Give me that." Emma took the ring from her hand and slipped it on her ring finger. "There. Now you don't have to think about it."

Snow White stared at the ring and sighed with relief. "Thank you."

Emma looked at her curiously and said, "You're welcome. On a selfish note, that," Emma pointed at the ring, "makes me legitimate."

Lost in thought, Snow looked at her blankly and asked, "Huh?"

"I was born after you were married, right?"

"Right, of course."

A grin spread slowly across Emma's face. "And exactly how many months after you were married was I born?"

Snow White looked at her with momentary confusion, and then suddenly she understood what Emma was asking. With a hint of a smile she asked, "What do you think?"

Emma was about to respond to this, when they heard a familiar laugh.

"Hello, Cheshire," Emma said. "Here to say goodbye?"

"This bye is not good, my Pretty Willing. Here I am to say badbye."

Emma laughed and asked, "Does that mean you are going to miss us?"

Snow White was surprised that Emma so effortlessly understood the cat. Wonderland had changed her in a way that she had not imagined was possible. Snow's father had always said that Wonderland caused a person to lose his sanity, yet that same person would, in return, gain clarity. Emma was proof that the king had been right.

"Missing misses mystery," Cheshire chanted. "Mystery misses missing."

Emma looked to Snow to translate. Snow shrugged and said, "Sometimes I think he says things because he likes how it sounds."

"Sounds sounding silly are still sillier sounding to the sound."

"Stop," Emma said and then added with a smile, "sounding silly."

Cheshire purred and rubbed up against Emma's leg. "Pretty Willing will miss me."

"Perhaps," Emma admitted and then asked, "Is there anything we should know before we go into the castle?"

"There is much you should know, but should not knowing cause you peril, remember that against the Queen of Hearts to use what she does not have along with something she has in spades."

"Uh," Emma looked at Snow, "All I heard were the words 'peril', 'Queen of Hearts', and 'spades'."

Timothy, who had been quiet up to this point, said, "The Queen of Hearts does not have a heart. That is what you must use that against her."

"What does the queen have in spades?" Snow asked the mouse.

"Magic," Timothy said. His voice quivering. "The Queen of Hearts has magic in spades."

"So," Emma said, "if we're in danger, then we have to use heart and magic."

"A heart is a terrifying terrible thing not to have, and magic follows the heart, Pretty Willing. But where can magic go when there is no heart to follow?"

It was eerie to hear Cheshire's voice devoid of laughter. Snow White and Emma looked at each other. Fear reflected in both of their eyes.

"And if you decide not to perish, Pretty Willings, then remember that stepping through the mirror comes with a price as well."

Snow White was not sure what the cat meant by "decide not to perish". Why would either of them choose to die? Snow could feel her heart beat wildly in her chest. She wasn't nervous as Emma had earlier postulated; she was afraid. "What is the price of stepping through the mirror, Cheshire?"

"Remembrance of things past," Cheshire said, returning to his insanely cheerful self.

"How could remembering something be a price?" Emma asked. "Unless..."

Snow finished Emma's thought, "We won't remember coming to Wonderland."

"How?" Emma asked Cheshire. "Does the mirror cause amnesia like the Evil Queen's curse?"

"Not a curse," the cat told them. "It will be an unhappening, a returning to the moment in the mirror when it reflected you here."

Snow considered this and then said, "That would mean we would go back to Mr. Gold's when the earthquake hit."

"I don't think so," Emma said. "Cheshire didn't say we would go back to our time. He said 'the moment in the mirror'. Snow, the moment in the mirror was when the purple haze blew through town."

"What makes you say that?"

"I saw the purple haze in the mirror, remember? Maybe I could see it because I have magic. I don't know, but what I saw makes sense now. The mirror was reflecting the pawnshop; it just wasn't the pawnshop at the same time we were there."

"If we step through the mirror," Snow White said, "then..."

"We wouldn't only go back in time in Wonderland," Emma continued, "we will also go back in our time to wherever we were when the haze hit us. Am I right, Cheshire?"

Cheshire nodded and then did a back flip with his head.

"So," Snow White said as reality sunk in, "we won't remember any of this." She looked at Emma. "We won't remember us."

Emma looked angry. She turned to the cat and asked, "Are we going to keep doing this over and over again for all eternity? How many times have we already been here? This is ridiculous!"

"Pretty Sadly Willing, no same thing can ever happen as it has once happened before. Once upon a time can not be now upon a time or tomorrow's time. It is like a pool of water, always changing and changing always. Present now affects past then, or perhaps it is future now that affects present then or -"

"I get it," Emma said, still looking like someone had punched her in the stomach.

"So Emma and I will be changed by what we have experienced even though we won't remember it?" Snow White asked.

"Yes, Pretty Willing."

"So, this experience could change us so much that we might never come to Wonderland at all," Snow said.

"Never is a very long time," Cheshire said, "and never is sometimes no time at all."

Snow White looked at Emma to see how she was handling all of this.

"Well," Emma said, "time to go then."

"Badbye, Pretty Willings."

Emma nodded. "Badbye, Cheshire."

Snow looked from the cat to her daughter and silently said, _"Badbye, Emma."_


	17. Promise

**Promise**

_Emma_

"Don't look at us like that, Timothy," Emma said.

After saying "badbye" to Cheshire, both Emma and Snow agreed that it was too dangerous for Timothy to accompany them. Timothy did not agree.

"I would give my life and even my whiskers for Her Majesty and Her...Emma."

"We know that Timothy," Snow said, "but we don't want you to give up your life or whiskers. You are such a good and brave mouse, and Wonderland can't afford to lose you."

Emma couldn't help but smile at how Timothy responded to Snow White's compliments. He puffed out his chest and did his best to look noble. Emma was amazed to realize how fond she'd grown of Timothy. She wasn't sure when she'd stopped seeing him as a talking mouse and begun to see him as a friend.

After a little more prodding and cajoling, Timothy finally agreed to let them go alone. It was a tearful parting - at least for Timothy and Snow. Emma watched and wondered if Timothy had made a profound enough impact on her to change how she felt about mice once she went back to Storybrooke. Perhaps Wonderland was the perfect place to conquer phobias after all.

Getting into the castle was the easy part. Getting home, on the other hand, would prove to be more difficult. The plan was simple. Get in, find the mirror, get home, and_..._"_forget everything_," Emma thought. Snow White and she had certainly had their moments as they adventured across Wonderland, but Emma knew now that she didn't want to forget any of them.

"Hey," Emma said to Snow before they went onto the palace grounds.

"Yes?"

"In case I don't get another chance to tell you, I wanted to let you know that I've thought a lot about what you asked me when we first got to Wonderland."

"What was that?" Snow White asked her.

"You wanted to know if I wished that I still didn't know who you were. Well, I know the answer now, and forgetting our time here won't change how I feel - even if it will take me awhile to admit this again." Emma took a deep breath and said, "I'm glad that I know who my mother is, and, Mary Margaret, I am so happy that it's you because no one has ever made me feel loved like you do."

Snow White started to respond, but Emma held up her finger, indicating she wasn't done yet.

"As for you, Snow White, I never dreamed that I was the daughter of a fairytale princess, but that's because I never dreamed. If I had, I would have wanted it to be you. You're brave even when you're scared. You have the ability to kick ass, but you're one of the most gentle, caring people I know. And when everything around you is chaos, you know how to stay calm. You are the kind of person I have always looked up to, and I am lucky to be a part of your family."

It was impossible read all of the emotions Snow White felt at that moment, but whatever Snow felt, Emma knew that she was feeling it too. For once, Snow didn't look like she knew how to express what she felt in words, so she hugged Emma instead.

"I don't want to forget you," Emma said and then started to cry.

"Oh, Emma," Snow said and continued to hold her. "Everything's going to be okay. I love you. You know that, right?"

Emma nodded. Yes, she was a natural born cynic, but Emma had never once doubted this woman's love for her.

"I love you too," Emma said. "I think I always have from the moment you talked me into staying in Storybrooke."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Emma said, nodding as she pulled away to look at her mother's face. "At the time, I blamed Henry for putting the crazy idea in my head that you and I were family. Then, the very next day you offered for me to live with you, and I was scared by how much I immediately wanted to say yes."

"Why are you telling me all of this now, Emma?"

"Because if you could recognize me and trust me, even in the midst of a curse, then I have hope that some part of you will remember this too - not on a conscious level, of course, but that didn't seem to matter to you before."

Laughing, Snow asked, "Are you trying to help me get passed your walls after we step through the mirror and start this all over again?"

Emma took both of Snow White's hands and held them. "I'm not very good at asking for things, but I'm begging you to not give up no matter how I push you away or try to keep you out."

"In case you haven't figured this out yet, I'm just as stubborn as you are. And when it comes to our relationship, I think I'm more stubborn than you."

Emma thought back over their experiences, not only in Wonderland, but since they met. "I think I agree with that," she said.

"Then what are you afraid of?" Snow asked.

Emma took a moment to gather her thoughts before she answered. "I'm afraid that I'm too good at hiding behind my own walls. What if we don't go through something like this again? What if I run?"

"Emma," Snow White said, "I will find you. No matter what you do or where you go, I will always find you."

"Is that a promise, Snow White?" Emma asked.

"Yes, Emma, that's a promise, and something you should know about me is that I never break my promises," Snow told her. "I promise to find you. I promise to love you, and I promise to push you until you admit that you love me back."

"I love you," Emma said.

"I love you more," Snow replied.

Emma gave Snow a strange look. "I didn't realize this was a competition."

Snow White laughed. "It's not. It's something my mother and I said to each other. I guess it's silly."

"Well, in that case," Emma said, "I love you most."

Snow took a moment to process that and then said, "Damn. Why didn't I ever think of that?"

Emma shrugged. "I win."

"Yes, Emma, you win, but only this time."

Emma laughed. "I think you underestimate how competitive I am. Now, let's go home so you can find me again."

Snow nodded. "Let's go home."

Together, they walked into the most dangerous place in all of Wonderland.


	18. The Queen of Hearts

**The Queen of Hearts**

_Snow White_

The Queen of Hearts' palace was made from the landscape just as the White Queen's had been, but that was where the similarities ceased. Where the White Queen's castle had been made of bark and roots and branches, the Queen of Hearts' home was covered in razor-edged, green foliage. Enormous red roses bloomed everywhere, which might have been beautiful had they not reminded Snow White of blood.

Snow did a double-take when she saw the queen's guards. Their appendages were normal like any other men's but their bodies were completely flat. They were playing cards. Snow White had seen many wondrous and bizarre things in her life, but this might just top it all.

"Lady Mary Margaret Blanchard of Storybrooke Land," one of the guards announced. Snow noticed that he was the eight of hearts.

Snow White bowed before the queen and said, "I am humbled to be in your presence my queen."

The Queen of Hearts was not at all what Snow White had expected. She had a small stature that was covered from head to toe in black; her face was veiled. And when she spoke, Snow had to strain to hear her, but it was impossible to discern her words. All she could hear was a rasping, broken sound. Standing beside the queen was her interpreter, a buoyant man who reminded Snow White of a neurotic clown.

"Her Majesty the Queen will meet with you in her private chambers," the man said and then clapped his hands, signaling the guards to carry the queen on her throne to her new destination. Snow White and Emma followed the entourage.

Once inside the queen's chambers, Snow White was invited to sit down near her. Snow wished she could refuse. She didn't know why, but the closer she was to the her, the more Snow's skin began to crawl. Perhaps it was the veil that frightened her so much, or perhaps it was because something inside of Snow White knew that the woman under the veil was pure, unadulterated evil.

The queen spoke to the interpreter, and whatever she said caused the man to blanche. "But Your Majesty - " he said and then was cut off midsentence by the queen. "Yes, Your Majesty," he replied and then said to the guards, "Her Majesty requests that she be left alone with her guests."

Snow White felt Emma tense behind her. Even Emma who was not accustomed to these situations must have been able to sense that something was terribly wrong.

Once everyone left, the queen motioned for Snow White to come even closer. Snow was thankful that Emma never left her side.

"Hello, Snow White," the queen rasped.

Snow White's heart lurched, but her face was illegible. "I beg your pardon, Your Majesty, but I believe that you have me confused for someone else. My name is Mary -"

The queen laughed. It was a harsh sound, grating sound that made Snow want to cringe and cover her ears. "It is unwise to lie to me, child," she said. "You do not remember me, but, oh, I remember you."

"Forgive me, Your Majesty, but I have never been to Wonderland," Snow White said.

"Who said anything about Wonderland? Tell me. Is your step-mother still alive and well?"

"I am not the person you think I am," Snow said calmly, even though her heart continued to beat wildly in her chest.

"I warned you not to lie to me."

"Ah!" Emma yelled, doubling over in pain.

"Emma!" Snow quickly wrapped her arms around her and slowly lowered both of them to the floor. Emma yelled out again.

"Yes, I am Snow White! Now, please, stop this!"

The queen released Emma from whatever painful bind she'd had her in and laughed. "Now was that so difficult, dear?"

If Snow White had had a gun, she would have shot the Queen of Hearts right then and there, but Snow knew that she would never be able to reach the queen with her sword. The queen's magic was far too powerful.

"Emma, are you okay? Emma, look at me."

Emma looked up at her and smiled weakly as if to say, "I'm okay." There was still so much pain etched on her face.

"I'm so sorry, Emma," Snow whispered and kissed her on the forehead. "I'm so sorry."

"It's a shame," the queen said, "that children so often have to pay for the mistakes of their parents, but such is life. Now tell me about Regina."

"The last time I saw her, Regina was alive and well," Snow White told her.

"Where was she when you saw her?"

"She is in Storybrooke."

"Storybrooke...interesting...very interesting indeed. I take it that you and your daughter traveled here by mistake then and that you are here to use my mirror back to your land. Unfortunately, only two can go through, and I plan on being one of them."

"Why are you doing this?" Snow White asked the Queen of Hearts.

"Because, my dear child, this is my happy ending."

Struck by the familiar words, Snow White asked, "Who are you?"

"I think you know."

Snow White stared at the queen in shock. This could not be..."Cora?"

The Queen of Hearts laughed, "Very good, my little granddaughter. I thought you might never guess." She lifted her veil, and underneath it was a hideously scarred face. The once beautiful woman had been maimed almost past the point of recognition.

"Do you like what your step-mother did to me?" she sneered. "I was once the fairest of them all, and now...well, revenge can be a very happy ending. Now, Snow White, it is time for you to make a choice. Who gets to return to Storybrooke, and who stays behind."

She didn't want Emma anywhere near this woman, but what choice did she have? "I will stay," Snow White said.

"No," Emma said. "You can't."

"Shh...," Snow said.

"How touching," the Queen of Hearts said, "and how noble. You were always so noble, weren't you dear? Look where that got you."

As she stepped toward them, Snow instinctively held on to Emma more tightly.

"Oh, I almost forgot," the queen said, "I'll be needing this."

Pain like Snow White had never experienced before shot through her entire body as the queen reached inside her chest to pull out her heart.

"No!" Snow heard Emma scream.


	19. Together

**Together**

_Emma_

"No!" Emma screamed and did the only thing she could think of. It wasn't the best or the most rational plan, but it was affective. Emma grabbed the Queen of Heart's arm before she could pull it back out of Snow White's chest.

"Foolish girl! Let go of me!" the Queen of Hearts yelled at Emma. She was unaccustomed to anyone standing up to her, let alone grabbing her.

"Get your own fucking heart, you bitch," Emma yelled back, meanwhile refusing to let Cora move her arm by even a fraction of an inch. How much longer before Snow went into cardiac arrest? This was how Graham had died; Emma would not let Snow White die like this too.

The queen's eyes grew wide in shock at Emma's audacity, but she quickly recovered, "So be it. Now you both will die," the queen said and reached for Emma's heart.

Emma braced herself for the inevitable, excruciating pain but it never came. Somehow there was an invisible, impenetrable shield between the queen and her that protected Emma and her heart.

Emma remembered the Cheshire Cat's words..._"Should not knowing cause you peril, remember that against the Queen of Hearts to use what she does not have along with something she has in spades."_

"Heart and magic," Emma said aloud, quickly putting the pieces together. Cheshire had given her the key to unlocking her full potential.

It was at that moment Emma finally understood how she had broken the curse in Storybrooke and why she now had magic. It was love. Love had saved Snow White from the fate of never-ending slumber and regret. Love created Emma, and love had protected her from the curse. Love woke David from his coma, and love brought Henry back from the dead. The purple haze that blew through Storybrooke was made from the same love that had made her. That was why Emma could break the curse, and that was how she would defeat the Queen of Hearts. The curse and Cora were created from magic that was born out of the complete absence of love. Emma had already broken the curse; now it was Cora's turn.

All that Emma had to do was look at her mother to trigger the magic inside of herself.

"What are you doing?!" the Queen of Hearts screamed.

Emma could only describe what happened next as a prism of light that burst from her in every direction like shards of diamonds. It shred the Queen of Hearts before Emma's eyes like paper, but Snow White remained unharmed.

For a moment, all Snow White and Emma did was watch as what was left of the queen disappeared like a shadow against the light. Just like that, the Queen of Hearts was gone.

"Are you okay?" Emma asked Snow who was clutching her chest.

Snow nodded and said, "I still have a heart if that's what you're asking. How did you do that? That was the most spectacular and terrifying thing I have ever seen."

Emma was so relieved that her friend was alive that she hugged her. Then she said, "I had a little help from Snow White and Prince Charming."

Snow White stared at Emma with a puzzled expression.

"Never mind," Emma said. She was too tired to explain the revelation she had had a moment ago. "We should go before anyone else tries to kill us."

"Good idea," Snow White said, looking like she might go into shock at any moment. Emma was surprised that Snow was still able to even stand after almost having her heart ripped out by her evil step-grandmother.

"I just killed my own step-great grandmother," Emma said as they hurried through the halls. Cards lay strewn across the grounds. Apparently, the Queen of Hearts hadn't been the only one Emma had slice-and-diced.

"Yes, you did," Snow replied. "It's too bad she won't stay dead for long."

"What do you mean?" Emma asked.

"When we go through the mirror..."

"Time will reset itself," Emma groaned when she remembered that particular, irritating caveat.

"And Cora will live to terrorize Wonderland another day," Snow said.

"I can't believe Regina's mother is the Queen of Hearts, though it does shed some light on her sociopathic behavior. In fact," Emma said, "I almost feel sorry for her."

"Really?" Snow White asked.

"No, not really, but now we have proof that she actually is the spawn of Satan," Emma said and then added, "proof which we will soon forget but hold in our hearts forever."

Snow White suddenly doubled over with laughter.

Emma smiled and shook her head. "Finally, you get one of my jokes."

"Huh?"

"Never mind," Emma replied when they reached the queen's chambers.

"I guess we don't need to leave the White Queen's note now."

"No, we don't," Emma agreed and said with a mischievous grin, "Let's open it."

Returning her grin, Snow White opened the note and read it aloud:

_"Dear Sister, you have my cabbages. I want them back. Sincerely, Me."_

Snow White looked up from the note and shrugged. "That was anticlimactic."

"And just when I thought I was getting the hang of Wonderland," Emma said, "I hear something like that."

Snow White didn't respond but looked beyond Emma into the adjacent room.

"What's wrong?" Emma asked and then turned around. "Oh, I see."

They had found what they were searching for - the mirror that would lead them back to Storybrooke.

"I know we have to go," Snow White said, "but I'm really going to miss being here with you."

Emma smiled at the irony of it all and asked rhetorically, "Can you miss something you don't remember?"

"Yes," Snow White said, "I missed you every hour of every day for twenty-eight years."

Emma was speechless. She had been waiting, wishing, wanting for someone to say that her entire life.

"Thank you," Emma said.

"For what?"

"Thank you for missing me."

"Thank you for finding me," Snow White said.

"Anytime," Emma said and then added, "but try not to get cursed or framed for murder or eaten by giant plants from now on. And for the love of all that is holy, try to keep your heart inside of your body."

Snow White laughed, "I'll try, but only because I love you."

"I love you too," Emma said, surprised at how easily the words came to her now. Looking again at the mirror and what it represented, Emma knew that the longer they waited, the harder it would be to leave. Neither wanted to lose the other. She put her hand on Snow White's shoulder and said, "We should probably go now."

Snow nodded and then said, "It's so strange."

"What?"

"After all this time, I finally get to go with you."

"In my experience," Emma said, taking Snow White's hand, "it's better to be together than alone."

Snow White glanced down at their joined hands and then back up at Emma. "Together then?"

"Together," Emma said.

Together, Snow White and Emma Swan stepped through the mirror into another land where they would have many new adventures filled with both heartbreak and joy. But that is another story. All that you need to know is this: they lived happily ever after.


	20. Family Reunion Revisited

**Family Reunion Revisited**

_Emma_

This had to be, by far, the most bizarre situation Emma Swan had ever found herself in; so why did she feel like she'd done it before? _"The purple haze must have messed with my mind somehow_,_"_ Emma told herself.

All Emma really knew was that she wanted to go find Snow White. She wanted to find her mother. Emma stopped dead in her tracks. What on earth was wrong with her? After only a couple of hours of believing Henry's preposterous - yet very real - story, she was already thinking of Mary Margaret as not only Snow White but also her mother. That did not make sense, neither did it make sense when Emma grabbed a lighter off the ground where someone had carelessly tossed it. Emma checked to see if it worked. It did.

Henry gave her a strange look.

Emma shrugged and told him, "You never know when you might need to light a fire."

Henry nodded. Her logic made sense to him, which was good because it didn't make sense to her.

Emma rounded the corner with Henry just in time to hear Ruby ask, "So, what do we do now?"

The fear was as evident in her voice as strength and power were evident in the voice of the next person who spoke.

"Now, now I find my daughter," Snow White said with her back to Emma.

Part of Emma was surprised to hear Snow White say this, while another part of her was not surprised at all. Mostly, what she felt was relief. A promise she couldn't remember Snow White making was being kept.

"So, it's true," Emma said to her.

Snow White turned around, and the very first thing that Emma saw was recognition - mutual recognition. Snow started to walk toward her, not taking her eyes off of her daughter. Emma had the strangest feeling that this moment was somehow out of place - like when someone recalls a story, and you can't quite put your finger on it, but it's wrong. Or, in this case, it was more right than what Emma had anticipated.

Snow White didn't break eye contact with Emma, but then suddenly Snow White was gone. For a brief moment the woman in front of her stopped and became Mary Margaret, who was just as happy to see Emma, though for different reasons. Mary Margaret smiled at Emma with a surprised look on her face as if she were saying, "I agree that this is crazy, but I also know that it's true."

Just as quickly as Mary Margaret came, she left. And then there was that recognition again. Snow White took another step toward her. Emma felt a quick, knee-jerk reaction as her "fight or flight" reflex kicked into high gear. That didn't surprise Emma. What surprised her was that she didn't run. _"Stay put, Emma,"_ she told herself. _"She knows you, and you know her. She isn't going to hurt you."_

Snow White paused, and Emma could tell she was reading Emma's body language, silently asking, _"Can I come over, Emma?"_

The answer was yes.

_"Yes,"_ Emma thought._ "I want you to come closer."_

Somehow, this woman could read her mind. So with renewed confidence, Snow White continued to walk toward Emma.

Snow was now only a few breaths away from Emma. Emma should have felt like her person space was being invaded, but she didn't. She stood there and watched as Snow White's eyes rapidly covered every inch of her. Emma could tell that Snow was miles away somewhere in her mind, basking in the joy of finding her daughter...again.

Emma snapped back to reality when Snow White framed her face with her hands. Her eyes said, _"Look at me, Emma. I want to see you."_ Emma looked into her mother's eyes and felt an overwhelming sense of peace. Everything was going to be okay.

_"You found me,"_ Emma thought and then quickly looked away from Snow White so she wouldn't see Emma's tears. Too late.

Snow White saw what Emma felt and started to cry as she pulled Emma into an embrace. There are many different types of hugs. There are side-hugs and bear-hugs and "I really don't care" hugs, but this was no ordinary hug that Emma shared with Snow White. This was a melt into the other person kind of hug, where it becomes impossible to tell who is who. It was the most intimate moment of Emma's sad, lonely life. So she closed her eyes and treasured being with her mother. Time and space stopped. They were together now. They were together before. They would be together tomorrow.

"You found us," Snow White said.

Emma was visibly shocked, though her surprise was invisible to Snow White since they were still wrapped up in the mother-of-all hugs. What Emma couldn't get over was the incredible, overwhelming feeling that it was Snow White who had found her. It didn't make sense. Emma started to analyze the feeling. Why did she feel like Snow White had found her, when it had clearly been the reverse?

David joined the hug. She could feel him cry just as she had felt Snow White cry, and now she was crying again. Emma began to feel claustrophobic, but she wasn't exactly sure how to get untangled from her parents.

"Grandpa?" Henry asked.

Snow White started to laugh as the three of them instinctively pulled away to look at Henry.

_"Thank you, kid. I was afraid I was about to suffocate."_

"Yeah, kid, I suppose so," David said and then pulled Henry into one of those ultimate hugs.

_"Better you than me, kid. Wait a minute. Did David just call Henry 'kid'?_ Emma wasn't sure she wanted to share her pet name for her son with David. _"Oh well,"_ Emma thought. _"It's too late now."_

Emma turned her attention to Snow White who was looking at Henry and laughing. It was one of those laughs that was hard to distinguish from a cry. It was also one of those laughs that came from the pure shock of realizing she was a grandmother in her mid-twenties. Not many people laughed like that. All this, Emma was analyzing when Snow turned her attention back to Emma, who was not ready for more attention.

Snow rubbed her hands up and down Emma's arms. It was nice, but Emma was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed. She made eye contact with Snow who was positively glowing and looking like her joy had taken her somewhere else again. Her hands slowly started to drop away from Emma when Henry spoke.

"She did it," Henry said. "She saved you."

Emma felt Snow take a hold of her hands. Then she looked right at Emma and said, "She saved us all."

_"Thanks for nothing, kid."_

What could someone possibly say to that? Emma tried to say something profound, but all that came out was, "I...well...uh..."

"Uh, then why are we still here?" Leroy asked, causing everyone's attention to shift away from her to the new dilemma - everyone, of course, but Snow who was currently refusing to let go of Emma's hands.

_"If you give them an inch, they take a mile,"_ Emma thought and then slowly, carefully pulled her hands out of Snow's and strategically slung an arm over Henry's shoulders. Snow joined the conversation about fairytale land and how to get there. At some point the Blue Fairy showed up. Emma was no longer processing any of it.

The word "magic" broke Emma from her trance. Everyone thought that Regina had caused the purple haze. _"I thought we went through this already,"_ Emma thought and then felt foolish when she realized that she had not in fact said, "No. Wait. It wasn't Regina."

Everyone turned and looked at her.

"It was Mr. Gold," she told them, not knowing why she was so sure of herself but not really caring either. Emma had a job to do, which was a relief because she was emotionally exhausted. She felt as if she had lived a lifetime over that past few hours.

Without waiting for anyone to reply, Emma charged off toward Mr. Gold, still trying to shake the feeling of déjà vue. She could hear Snow White racing to catch up with her. Emma officially had a follower, and then to Emma's dismay she saw that while Snow trailed behind her, everyone else was following Snow.

_"Here we go again,"_ Emma thought and then remembered that this hadn't happened before. _"What on earth was in that purple smoke?"_ She glanced over at Snow White who was beaming at her and no doubt trying to find a way to touch her again. Emma smiled. Things would probably be awkward and rough for awhile, but somehow she already knew how their relationship would turn out.

Emma looked at Snow White one more time before she went into full on sheriff mode and thought, _"You found me."_


	21. The Right Wrong Choice

**The Right Wrong Choice**

_Snow White_

"Keep him safe, Ruby," Emma said. They had all agreed that Henry shouldn't go with them to Mr. Gold's. Of course, Snow had an ulterior motive as well. She quickly figured out Emma was using Henry as human shield. As happy as Snow was to answer Henry's hundreds of questions about the Enchanted Forest, all she really wanted was to spend time with her daughter. Unfortunately, Emma, as it would turn out, was very good at being near someone physically without actually being there at all. As Mary Margaret, she had never noticed this - probably because Emma had never avoided Mary Margaret.

Snow White watched her daughter and narrowed her eyes. She didn't know why, but she felt like she had already earned the right to talk to Emma - not as Mary Margaret but as herself. She had the feeling she had gone through all of this before, which made Emma's reaction to her that much more frustrating and hurtful. Every time they made eye contact, every time they had a moment, Emma evaded her. It would have been funny, but after waking up from a twenty-eight year curse to a daughter who wouldn't even speak to her, Snow found she was not amused.

Charming must have read her mind. He had a knack for that that David never had. "Don't push it, Snow," he told her.

"I'm not," Snow said innocently.

Walking up to them, Emma asked, "You guys ready?"

Enough was enough.

"We need to talk," Snow told her and ignored Charming's sigh of disapproval.

"I, well, I...I don't...just..." Emma was apparently unprepared for the direct approach. She turned and looked like she was going to make a mad dash for Ruby's car only to find it was already gone.

_"You can run,"_ Snow said to her silently, _"but I will find you."_

Emma must have realized there was no escape; so she turned back toward them and said, "I don't want to talk."

_"That might have worked with Mary Margaret who was afraid of her own shadow," _Snow thought,_ "but that is not going to work with me."_

"But I do," Snow told Emma frankly, "okay? Gold can wait. I can't."

Emma continued to stare at the ground.

"I mean, you're my daughter," Snow said. That got Emma's attention. She looked up at her in surprise. Snow smiled at her, saying, "and I want to talk to you."

"I know that we have talked," Snow continued, "but we didn't know that we were talking."

_"I'm not making any sense,"_ she thought but continued. "We talked about things we probably shouldn't have even talked about..."

_"I might as well get this over with,"_ Snow thought.

"...one night stands and the like."

"One night stands?" Charming asked, suddenly tuning into the conversation.

"Whale," Snow said.

"Whale!"

"We were cursed. That is neither here nor there." Snow took advantage of her husband's momentary shock to shift the conversation back to Emma who looked, if possible, even more awkward than she had previously.

"The point is...we did not know that we were mother and daughter, and now we do. And...so, please," she pleaded with Emma, "let's talk."

_"If I have to start crying,"_ Snow silently threatened, _"I will."_

Emma must have gotten the hint. "Okay," she said, "what do you want to talk about?"

_"Yes!" _Snow thought and then suddenly realized she had no clue what to say. It wasn't as if she'd had a speech written for the occasion. "We're together, finally." Snow smiled brightly and then looked from Charming to Emma. Neither of them were smiling back. Perhaps she shouldn't have mentioned Whale.

Snow stopped smiling and said to Emma, "And I can't help but think you're not happy about it."

"Oh, I am," Emma told her, "but, see...here's the thing, no matter what the circumstances, for twenty-eight years I only knew one thing - that my parents sent me away."

"We did that to give you your _best_ chance," Snow White told her.

"You did it for everyone," Emma said, "because that's who you are - leaders, heroes, princes and princesses. And that's great and amazing and," Emma sighed, "wonderful, but it doesn't change the fact that for my entire life, I've been alone."

Mary Margaret had known this. She had known how sad, how lonely Emma's life had been. Mary Margaret had hurt for her roommate who had never known the joy of being a child. For Snow White, though, this was the first time she'd seen this side of Emma. It was the first time Emma had blamed it on her.

_"You think I abandoned you,"_ Snow thought and then began to worry. _"Is that what I did?"_ That's what Mary Margaret had thought Emma's parents had done. Though she had never expressed it to Emma, Mary Margaret had always been secretly angry at Emma's parents for leaving their daughter alone to face the world. How was that for irony?

"But if we hadn't sent you away," Snow said as much for herself as for Emma, "you would have been cursed too." Somehow, saying it aloud made Snow feel like she had just made up the worst excuse she could have possibly said at that moment.

Emma looked at Snow White. There were no walls, no pretenses, no accusations. There was only pain. "But we would have been together," Emma looked away as if she were about to cry, and then she asked her, "Which curse is worse?"

Whatever Snow White had been about to say was silenced by the undeniable fact that she had in an effort to save her daughter from one curse, created a whole new kind of curse instead. At that moment, Snow would have given anything to not be a queen or a princess or a hero, but to have another chance to be Emma's mother.

Emma said something that Snow White couldn't hear above the wall of emotions she had just slammed into, and then she walked between her two parents and on toward Gold's pawnshop. Snow White watched her go off to save the town of Storybrooke...again. This was what Emma thought her mother had sent her to this world to do - to be its hero.

As noble as it sounded, Snow knew that honor had never been her true motive. There was only one person she thought of when she sent Emma through the wardrobe - Emma. None of that mattered now though.

She felt her husband hold her hand, but there was no comfort in it. All Snow could hear was the sound of her daughter's voice reminding her, _"no matter what the circumstances, for twenty-eight years, I only knew one thing - that my parents sent me away."_

Snow White had felt a lot of things in her life, but this was the one thing she had never felt: regret. She had always been one of those people who leapt first and then thought later. All those years ago, she had jumped to the conclusion that sending Emma through the wardrobe was the best decision, but had it been?

_"Maybe it would have been better if I had never remembered who I was."_

"Snow -" Charming started.

"No," Snow White said, "no, don't try to make me feel better. This is my fault. You told me not to do it."

"When I told you not to push?"

Snow White was quiet for a moment and then said, "No...when you told me I was crazy to send her away."

"It was the right thing to do, Snow. If you hadn't, we wouldn't be standing here having this conversation."

_"No,"_ Snow thought _"we wouldn't, but I might be standing here holding her."_

"There wasn't a right thing to do," Snow said. "There were only wrong things. I don't think I made the right wrong choice - not for her."

"Then all you can do, Snow, is the next time you're in that situation, make the right wrong choice for Emma."

Snow White nodded and said, "I will."

* * *

_a few hours later..._

"No!" Snow White screamed as she watched her daughter pulled into the hat. Regina had said it send the wraith to oblivion, which meant that was where Emma was going - alone.

_"But we would have been together,"_ Emma had said, and suddenly, Snow White knew what she had to do.

"I'm not losing her again," she yelled to Charming.

Snow jumped into the hat after her daughter. As they fell in the darkness, she reached out and grabbed a hold of Emma's jacket. _"Together,"_ Snow promised her. No matter where they went, they would go together.

It was the right wrong choice.


	22. Diplomacy

**Diplomacy**

_Emma Swan_

Emma didn't know where she was. All she knew was that her whole body hurt as if it had been slammed into a brick wall. The first thing she saw was Mary Margaret lying asleep next to her. Emma's jacket was clutched in her hand. That sparked a memory - a memory of falling into a black abyss. She hadn't had time to be frightened before she'd felt Mary Margaret's arms wrap around her. The last thing she remembered was hearing her say, "I've got you. I won't let you go." Apparently, she'd kept her promise. But where were they now?

"Tie them up," Emma heard a woman say.

"Is that really necessary?" another woman asked. "We don't know that they're dangerous."

"And we don't know they're not either. Phillip didn't sacrifice his life for you - for us - so that you could toss it away to some strangers."

Emma had the sinking suspicion that she and Mary Margaret were the strangers in question. Her vision was blurry at best, but she did her best to estimate where the voices were coming from. "Um, we come in peace," Emma said weakly. The line reminded her of a badly written alien flick, but it was all she could think of beyond her pounding headache.

"You have already brought death with you," the not-so-friendly woman spat. "You will be judged for your crimes."

This was not sounding good. Emma reached over and shook Mary Margaret.

"Emma," Mary Margaret said, but she was still asleep.

Emma didn't get the chance to shake her again before she was unceremoniously hauled to her feet by a woman who was wearing...armor?

"Mary Margaret!" Emma shouted.

"Tie that one up now, Aurora!"

Aurora? Wasn't that the name of..._"Oh, hell,"_ Emma thought as the past day's events flashed before her eyes...Henry poisoned...dragon...golden egg...Henry brought back to life...curse broken...awkward family reunion...wraith...hat..."Mary Margaret!" she shouted again as her vision focused.

They were in some sort of castle courtyard. At least that's what it looked like, and Mary Margaret - no, Snow White - was about to be tied up by Sleeping Beauty, while Emma was being held by...some other fairytale character with a really, really strong grip. It didn't look like the fairytale world Emma imagined - well, the world she would have imagined had she imagined it. It was dark and felt broken, like a stained glass window that had a rock thrown through it. She could tell the land had once been beautiful. Now it was cold and eerie.

Mary Margaret woke up just as her hands were being tied. Unlike Emma, she didn't come in peace; instead, she knocked Aurora out of the way and scrambled out of the hole they'd woken up in. Aurora let out a gasp, lost her balance, and fell over. Apparently, no one had warned her that a full-length ball gown was not the best outfit to wear in post-apocalyptic fairytale land.

The look that crossed Snow White's face when she saw Emma was being held hostage was the same look a mother hen would have if someone took one of her chicks. Hitting Sleeping Beauty had been a warm up.

_"This is going to hurt,"_ Emma thought as Snow tackled Emma's captor, which also took Emma down. She felt Mary Margaret's hand grab her jacket again, but this time it was to yank her off the ground. They were roughly the same size; so it surprised Emma how easily Snow pulled her up.

"Come on!" Snow yelled at her.

Emma didn't need to be told twice, but unfortunately the armored woman Snow White had knocked to the ground had a vendetta against anyone who made her eat dirt. Too late, Emma felt the woman's hand wrap around her ankle. Her own forward motion threw her off balance and brought her tumbling back to the ground.

Mary Margaret turned and saw Emma lying on the ground kicking at the incredibly pissed off warrior woman.

"Go!" Emma shouted and then turned her attention back to her captor. At some point, Aurora tried to join the fight, but she only succeeded in being knocked on her ass again. It was a sad day when Emma Swan wouldn't be able to take on a woman who was known for fainting after she pricked her finger on a spinning wheel.

"Let her go." Snow White was back, and she was armed with a bow and arrow.

Emma felt herself dragged into a choke hold. Her captor was using her as a human shield. This was not turning out well. To make matters worse, her roommate - the school teacher - was fighting better than she was. That was humiliating.

"I hope you're a good shot," the woman told Snow.

"I am," Snow said. Her voice was calm, but there was an edge to it that Emma couldn't place but somehow knew meant she was about to kick someone's ass.

And then there was a knife. "Drop it, or I will slit her throat," the woman threatened, sounding just as serious as Snow White.

"Don't do it," Emma tried to tell her but then choked by the growing pressure that was suddenly being placed on her windpipes.

"Stop!" Snow yelled, suddenly looking helpless and like Mary Margaret again. "Here," she said and tossed her weapon aside. "Now, let her go."

Emma dropped to the ground and gasped for air. She felt the tip of a blade above the base of her neck. "Don't move," the woman told her.

_"Wasn't planning on it," _Emma thought. This day just got better and better. Next time Regina had a soul-sucking wraith attack her, she would have to enlist another savior...preferably one capable of beating the crap out of Asian fairytale characters.

"Aurora, tie this other one up. And you, Mary Margaret, if you move, your friend will die."

"If you hurt her," Snow said, "you will die."

"That's pretty confident coming from someone without a sword."

"I don't need one," Snow White told the woman.

Emma suddenly had a flash of what felt like a memory, but it didn't make sense. She saw herself lying on the ground with Mary Margaret standing over her with a wooden sword pointed at her heart. And then the memory was gone as quickly as it came.

_"That was weird,"_ Emma thought.

"Tie that tighter, Aurora."

Aurora looked frightened, which probably had something to do with the death stare Mary Margaret was giving her. Emma almost felt sorry for the girl...then again she was helping the warrior princess tie them up.

"Sit," the woman said to Snow once she was satisfied she would be able to untie herself anytime soon. "Aurora, tie this one up now."

"Do you always do as your told?" Snow asked Aurora.

"Be silent!"

Emma felt the blade on her neck almost break the skin. She was getting a little tired of being the recipient of their pissing match.

Snow didn't say anything else, but the look on her face conveyed exactly how she felt. If only looks could kill.

"I'm sorry," Aurora said quietly as she tied Emma's hands.

"I realize that we got off to a bad start," Emma told them, "but -"

"I said silence!"

"Mulan," Aurora said, "there's no reason to hurt her."

_"Mulan?"_ Emma thought and then asked, "Aren't you the one who pretended to be a guy?"

Mulan pushed her back to the ground once her hands were bound and then said to Aurora, "Let's tie them to the horses."

Apparently, mentioning her captor's history as a cross-dresser was not the best diplomatic move Emma could have made.

* * *

_Special Thanks:_ I wanted to post a shout out to _pockets1217_. You are the most amazing reviewer I have ever seen.


	23. Curses

**Curses**

_Snow White_

"Damn!" Emma said, almost falling and bringing Snow down with her.

"Are you okay?" Snow asked. She tried to help Emma, but Emma pulled away.

"I'm fine," Emma said.

_"And she's still mad at me,"_ Snow thought. _"What the hell does she want me to do?"_

To say she'd had better days, was an understatement. Snow White had been orphaned, hunted, captured, poisoned more than once, and, of course, cursed. All of that, she knew how to handle, but Snow had no idea what to do in this particular situation she and Emma found themselves in.

She was tied to the back of a horse next to her daughter, who had no clue how to handle herself in a place where she couldn't talk or shoot her way out. Neither of those skills would be very useful where they were now. So, needless to say, this was not the mother-daughter bonding time Snow White had been hoping for.

"Did the wraith pull you into the hat too?" Emma asked her as they trailed behind Mulan and Aurora.

_"Great,"_ Snow thought, _"now you want to talk?"_

"I jumped in after you," Snow told her.

"You did?" Emma sounded surprised. "Why?"

It hurt Snow that she even had to ask, but the good thing about having the worst day of her life was that it really couldn't get much worse. "I didn't want to lose you again," Snow told her.

When Emma didn't respond, Snow said, "Better cursed together than alone, right?"

Snow watched as Emma tripped and then almost fell. Enough was enough. "Hey!" she shouted at Mulan. "Will you please slow down?"

Mulan ignored Snow.

"I don't think she heard you," Emma told her.

"Oh, she heard me."

"Why don't you tell them who you are? This is fairytale land, right?"

"Who I am might not be a good thing," Snow said as quietly as she could. It had been her unresolved family issues, after all, that had created the mess they were currently walking through.

"Why not?" Emma asked.

"Emma, we can't talk about this right now. Just know that this isn't Maine. There are no courts or laws protecting prisoners. Don't expect them to play by the same rules."

"I gathered that from the fact that we're being dragged against our will behind a narcissist on a horse." Emma sounded insulted.

Snow decided that not talking was the best thing to do. They needed to conserve their energy. Who knew how far they had to walk?

_"This is all my fault,_" Snow thought. _"I'm the reason we were cursed." _The way she saw it, the fight should have been between Regina and her - not all of fairytale land and certainly not her daughter. Since the moment she'd learned she was pregnant, all Snow had done was try to protect Emma. But everything she did backfired.

After another hour of walking, Emma looked like she was going to fall down. Snow had to think of something and prayed it wouldn't create more problems in the end. Her eyes landed on a tree they would pass in another fifteen feet.

_"I really hope this works,"_ Snow thought and then told Emma to follow her lead. The two of them ran together toward the horse creating enough slack in the rope to loop themselves once around the tree. It was just enough leverage to stop the horse and its rider in their tracks.

"What are you doing?" Mulan yelled at them as her horse attempted to buck off its rider.

"We need to stop," Snow said. "Tie us to whatever you want, but if we keep walking at this rate one of us is going to fall. Good luck making it to wherever we're going with a prisoner with a broken ankle."

"Fine!" Mulan said. "But we aren't stopping for long."

Stopping at all was a relief. Emma and Snow collapsed on the ground and leaned against the tree their rope was now wrapped around. For awhile, they rested in silence.

"It wasn't for them, you know," Snow told Emma.

"What are you talking about?" Emma asked with her eyes closed.

"I didn't send you through the wardrobe for everyone. You're right; that's what heroes do, but that isn't what I did." When Emma didn't respond, Snow continued. "I did it because it was the only way I knew how to protect you. I realize knowing that doesn't change the past, but I hope you'll let it change your future."

For awhile Emma didn't say anything. Snow didn't expect her to respond; so she was surprised when she heard her speak.

"Do you remember when I moved in with you?" she asked Snow.

"Of course."

"Did I ever tell you why I changed my mind?" Emma asked.

Snow shook her head. "I thought you were tired of living in your car."

"It was Regina," Emma said.

"Regina?" Snow hadn't expected that. "She told you to move in with me?"

"No, not exactly. I confronted her after she told us that Kathryn was David's wife."

"The nag with the bad attitude," Snow mumbled.

"What?" Emma asked.

"Nothing...you were saying?"

"Right, well, Regina told me how happy she was to have Henry because being alone was the worst curse of all. That's when I realized that was my curse, to be alone." Emma let out a deep breath and continued, "But there you were, saying I didn't have to be. Then, for the first time in my life I wasn't alone, but the problem was - is - that I still feel alone most of the time. That's what I meant when I said that no matter the reason, nothing can change what I went through. I'm not trying to blame you or make you feel bad. I'm just trying to explain why I'm not...whatever it is you wish I could be. I'm sorry, but I don't think my curse can be broken as easily as yours was. I don't know if it can ever be broken."

Snow listened to everything Emma was saying. Then she asked, "Do you know what the curse on Storybrooke was?"

Emma shrugged. "Massive amnesia."

"No," Snow said. "That's what kept the curse in place, but the real curse was losing our happy endings."

"Oh," Emma said. She didn't look like she knew what that meant.

"Emma," Snow said, "you are my happy ending, which means that until your curse is broken, mine will never be."

Emma looked at her, and there was something familiar in her eyes. For a moment, Snow felt as if she had already lived her happy ending, but that didn't make any sense.

"Never is a very long time," Emma said quietly.

It seemed to Snow that Emma was quoting something from a book, or maybe it was a song. Snow continued whatever it was they were both hearing in their minds. "And never is sometimes..."

"...no time at all," Emma finished. The two of them looked at each other, both trying to remember something that was just beyond their reach.

"All right," Mulan said, breaking the moment. "We've sat long enough. It will become more dangerous by nightfall, and I don't relish the idea of having to protect the two of you."

"Neither do we," Snow mumbled so that only Emma could hear her.

Emma laughed quietly as they stood and unwrapped themselves from their guardian tree.

* * *

**Note to readers: **Well, you guys talked me into it. I'm going to continue writing in between the Snow White and Emma Swan scenes and do my best to follow along with the actual show. I'm sorry I can't update as quickly as you're accustomed to from me. As most of you know by now, I write for a living, and as much fun as this is, I don't get paid to do it. So, I'm squeezing this in while writing my "real" story. You are all awesome, and I love reading what you think and what you want to see happen next. Seriously, I wish I could go through this process with all my stories.


	24. Friendly Enemies

**Friendly Enemies**

_Emma_

After their incident with the tree, Mulan decided to lead them along the coastline just in case they got the urge to stop again. As they walked, Emma thought about what Mary Margaret had said about Emma being her happy ending. She found it hard to believe that anyone could feel like that about her. No one, with the exception of Henry, had ever fought to be with her. Emma had always seen herself as unlovable. After all, of the twenty-three families she'd been a part of, not one had wanted to keep her. Emma looked over at Mary Margaret - the one woman who had made her feel welcome was the one woman who was most responsible for the life Emma had led.

_"How's that for complicated?"_ Emma thought and then nearly fell.

"Are you okay?" Mary Margaret asked her.

"I'm fine," Emma mumbled and reminded herself that this was not the time to work out her feelings about her friend/mother/fairytale roommate.

After what felt like an eternity Mulan and Aurora suddenly came to a halt in front of a wooded peninsula that reached into the ocean.

"What is this place?" Mary Margaret called out to Mulan.

"Our home," Mulan said.

Aurora looked at Mulan with an expression that mirrored Emma's and Mary Margaret's. The three of them were thinking, "You have got to be joking." Of course, in the short time Emma had known Mulan, it was clear she had about as much a sense of humor as a bump on a log.

They crossed the sandbar in silence.

Once they were safely across, Mulan told Aurora to untie them from the horse but to leave their hands tied.

Emma silently wondered why a princess was taking orders from her grumpy companion. Then again, Mulan was the one with the sword, and Aurora was the one in the frilly dress.

Soon they came to a small settlement. To Emma, the place looked like something out of a movie set in the medieval times. It was nothing more than a couple of grass huts and other structures Emma didn't know the names or purpose for. The people seemed out of place, though. Each wore garments that seemed to come from different times and worlds. Yet, they wore identical expressions of despair and fear.

"It's like they're refugees," Emma told Mary Margaret. Mary Margaret didn't seem to hear her, or if she had, she certainly wasn't feeling any kind of compassion for them. In fact, she looked like she was analyzing the place the same way someone might survey a chessboard.

"We're survivors," Mulan said. Her voice was laced with defensiveness. Emma had clearly just insulted her home.

_"Someone's a little defensive,"_ Emma thought and was about to respond when without warning, Mary Margaret quickly turned and kneed Aurora in the stomach. Emma didn't have time to be shocked. Her first instinct was to check Aurora to make sure she was okay, but Mary Margaret shouted at her to run.

Emma's fight or flight response kicked into high gear.

As she bolted toward the tree line, Emma silently asked, _"Really, you had to hit the nice one?"_

Emma was almost home free when she heard Mary Margaret scream. She whirled back around, and her heart nearly stopped when she saw her friend lying face down in the dirt. "Mary Margaret!" Emma raced back to her and prayed she was still alive.

"Mary Margaret!" She turned her over and frantically looked for signs that she was breathing. She couldn't tell.

"What did you do?" Emma shouted at Mulan. She was sure this wasn't the work of Sleeping Beauty. Emma, who still couldn't tell if Mary Margaret was breathing, was on the brink of tears.

"Take them to the pit," Mulan ordered.

"No," Emma said when she felt someone grab her. Didn't they understand that her friend was hurt or possibly even dead? She tried to fight them off as they dragged the two of them away from the middle of the settlement.

Growing up, Emma had met lots of physically abused kids. Abuse tended to create one of two responses in a person. Either they cowered in fear, or, like Emma, they learned to fight back. She knew that her captors would most likely succeed getting her wherever it was they were taking her, but she was not about to make it easy for them. And by the sounds they were making as she struggled, dragging her was not an easy task.

After she felt herself shoved through a door, Emma turned to see a man dragging the still unconscious Mary Margaret.

"Be careful!" she yelled at him, but he ignored her.

"No!" Emma half-said, half-whimpered as the man let Mary Margaret hit the ground with a loud thud. She reached out to try to catch her, but then realized that her hands were still tied. "Hey," Emma said gently as she turned Mary Margaret from her side.

"Come on, wake up," Emma pleaded with her. She heard the door to their prison shut, but she didn't care. _"Please, please don't be dead."_ Emma kept shaking her gently and whispering to her. Images of Graham's death kept flashing in her mind. There had been nothing she could do to save him either. Was death the fate of everyone she loved?

"Can you hear me?" Emma asked Mary Margaret louder this time.

"Do you need help?"

Emma looked up from Mary Margaret and saw the shadowy figure of a woman ten feet away from them. She didn't know why but something about her voice made Emma's heart beat wildly in her chest.

"Who are you?" Emma asked the shadow.

"A friend," the woman said, but Emma was not about to believe her. She wanted to tell the woman to stay back, but she didn't trust what she was feeling. After all Emma had been through, she didn't think she was in the position to discern her fear of this stranger from the overwhelming fear for Mary Margaret's life.

"My name is Cora."

The name brought with it a memory that Emma pushed to the side. She had never met this woman. She was being irrational.

"I could use help getting my hands untied," Emma told her.

Cora smiled sweetly at her, and Emma shrugged away the feeling that she was making a deal with the devil. At that point, Emma would knowingly do just that if it meant saving Mary Margaret's life.

_"I don't know how," _Emma told her friend silently, _"but I can - I will - get you out of this."_


	25. Competition

**Competition**

_Snow White_

Snow White awoke from a nightmare about having her heart ripped out by the Queen of Hearts. The pain in her chest had been so excruciating that it had felt real. As she regained consciousness, the pain in her body shifted from her chest to the back of her head. Snow opened her eyes and saw that she was in a cave, but she couldn't remember how she'd gotten there.

"They can't keep us down here," she heard Emma say, "we didn't do anything wrong."

"Neither did I," a woman's voice responded.

Snow didn't know why but the voice sent a chill down her spine. It was familiar to her, but she couldn't place it.

"Then why are you here?" Emma asked the woman. The suspicion in her voice was apparent.

"I'm here because of something my daughter did. The curse that ravaged this land...she cast it."

"Regina," Emma said the name as if it were profanity. "You're Regina's mother?"

Snow White was still dazed enough to not fully understand what was going on, but she felt an urgency. She needed to get up. She needed to be a part of this conversation.

"The apple fell very far from the tree," the woman said. "You're from over there aren't you? How did you get back?"

"Emma," Snow forced herself to say as she rose from the ground. There was a sharp pain in the back of her head, but she couldn't remember why. And then, Snow saw her - the woman who had haunted her nightmares since she was a child. It was Cora. "No," Snow said.

"Oh, Snow, you're awake," Cora said with a sweet smile that made Snow want to hurl. "I'm so relieved."

Snow pulled Emma aside and told her, "As bad as you think Regina is, this woman is worse."

Emma gave her a look that Snow had seen dozens of times as Mary Margaret. It was the face she wore when she thought her friend was over exaggerating or just being ridiculous.

"Oh, Snow," Cora said, "sweet, Snow, please believe me. Whatever she told you isn't true. I just want to help you."

Snow turned back toward Cora, blocking her from Emma, which Emma did not seem to appreciate. Snow put her arms up so Emma couldn't easily step around her like she was trying to do.

"Let's hear her out," Emma whispered.

"Emma," Snow said with a tone she hoped would get her to be quiet. It didn't work.

"Okay." Emma sounded annoyed with her. "Right now we are at the bottom of a hole with no other options, and Henry is back in Storybrooke with Regina."

Cora looked genuinely puzzled. "Who's...Henry?"

Snow White was about to tell Cora to go to hell when Emma said, "He's my son. I kind of share him with Regina. It's complicated -"

_"Emma!" _Snow shouted in her mind. She grabbed Emma and shook her. "Don't talk to her."

Emma looked at her like she was full of crap, and Snow tried to shut Emma up with her eyes alone. Emma opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by a voice up above. A man called out to them telling them to be quiet. Ironically, Emma listened to him.

They were told that the leader of the camp they were in wanted to speak with them, and they were tossed a rope.

"Go up first, Emma," Snow told her and didn't take her eyes off of Cora.

"Whatever," Emma mumbled, and Snow resisted the urge to kick her.

Cora smiled at her once Emma was out of the hole, "She looks like you. She is trusting like you were once as well. Children can be so naive."

"Pray we do not meet again, Cora," Snow told her and then allowed herself to be pulled out of the hole.

The light was almost blinding. The moment she was out of the pit, someone grasped her hand and pulled her the rest of the way. It was Emma.

"How are you feeling?" she asked her.

_"Oh, I don't know," _Snow thought, _"like you trust that witch more than me, like you think I am as incompetent as Mary Margaret, and like you are acting like an idiot."_

"Fine," Snow told her.

Emma looked surprised by her tone.

"Are you mad at me?" she asked.

"I'm not mad at you," Snow said. Okay, maybe she was a little mad at her. "I'm frustrated."

"I'm frustrated too," Emma said. She didn't realize Snow meant she was frustrated with her. "What is wrong with these people?"

_"How about you say that a little louder, Emma?" _Snow thought as she looked around at the terrified villagers. There was an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness, and her heart broke for these people who had escaped the curse only to find themselves living in a cursed land.

Snow noticed that one person didn't look scared - the princess she had attacked earlier that day. She looked positively livid. Thankfully, looks could not kill. Snow smiled at her. The girl glared back and then stormed off.

_"Brat,"_ Snow thought. _"I really hope I wasn't like that when I was younger."_ Though she had a sneaking suspicion that if she met herself before her father had died, she would have been incredibly underwhelmed by her depth and understanding of the real world. This was the real world. Villagers who were at the mercy of people like Cora. They did what they could to survive. Was it any wonder that the few that rose to power like Rumplestiltskin were corrupted by it? Or perhaps they were corrupted by the mistreatment of others, and power only magnified what was already there. Snow's father, for all his wisdom, had never been able to explain to her where evil came from. Snow was beginning to think that it was because he had never gone without. He never had to make the choice between feeding his family and being noble. Royalty got to do both.

_"Still," _Snow thought, _"that doesn't excuse a person from becoming evil. It is still a choice, even if it is a choice brought on through suffering. Those who suffer and rise to power can choose to make others suffer like they did, or they can choose to save others from their fate."_

Snow looked at her daughter and wondered which choice Emma would make. She knew that Emma blamed her for the suffering in her life, and that broke her heart.

Emma looked at her, "What?"

"Nothing," Snow said, "I was just thinking about what makes people like Cora become so evil."

"She didn't seem that bad," Emma said. "Maybe you misjudged her."

_"I misjudged someone who killed her own daughter's lover?" _Snow thought and then asked Emma, "Why can't you just listen to me?"

"Why couldn't you have trusted me?" Emma fired back. "I just trying to find a way to get us home. I could have handled her."

"Cora?" Snow asked in disbelief. If Emma only knew who she was talking about. No one could handle Cora, not even Regina. "Don't be so sure." Maybe it was all that had happened over the past twenty-four hours, or maybe it was just that Emma was getting on her last nerve, but Snow felt her patience running low. "I've lived here, Emma. I know this world, and it's dangers."

"Wait here," the guard told them. He seemed genuinely relieved to get away from them.

"Is that why you went through the portal?" Emma asked her, "Because you thought I was helpless here?"

Snow looked at her in surprise. "No," she said. Why couldn't Emma understand? "I came through to be with you."

_"I love you,"_ Snow thought but didn't say.

For a brief moment, Emma's tough exterior softened, and then the moment was gone. It was confusing. Emma had been so open with Mary Margaret, so inviting, but now everything was turning into a competition of who could take care of the other better.

Snow didn't want to impress Emma or make her feel incompetent. She wanted Emma to realize how much she loved her. Why couldn't she do that? Why couldn't she make her own daughter feel loved?


	26. Chimera

**Chimera**

_Emma_

"Is that why you came through the portal? Because you thought I was helpless here?" Emma heard the defensiveness she felt come out in her voice. After all the times she had taken care of Mary Margaret, she could at least do her the courtesy of pretending she wasn't an idiot.

"No," Mary Margaret said with a tone that quickly reminded Emma that Snow White was talking, "I came through to be with you."

_"She means it,"_ Emma thought and tried to cover up how good it made her feel.

Snow recognized someone behind Emma. "Lancelot?"

"Snow?" a deep male voice asked. He clearly recognized her back.

Emma spun around and saw a knight in shining armor. Snow White ran up and hugged him.

"If I had known you were the prisoners Mulan had brought back," he said, "I would have never locked you away."

_"Great," _Emma thought, _"can we go tie Mulan to a horse, drag her around for a while and then bludgeon her on the back of the head?"_

"Please," he said to Snow, "forgive me."

"Of course," she replied with a genuine smile. What was torture and incarceration among good friends?

Emma found it odd that Snow was so accepting of this man yet was so quick to turn down help from Cora. Maybe her sense of people was thrown off by the events of the past few days, but Emma got the same feeling from both Cora and Lancelot. She trusted them about as far as she could throw them, and Cora looked lighter than the knight.

"Lancelot, really?" Emma asked.

"He's an old friend," Snow told her.

"_Yeah,"_ Emma thought, _"I gathered that by the way you threw yourself on him."_

"We can trust him."

"_We'll see about that,"_ she thought as she shook his hand. "It's nice to meet you," Emma said more for Snow's benefit than his.

"Are you two hungry?" he asked.

"Yes," Emma said so emphatically that Snow laughed. "What?"

"Nothing," she said as the two of them followed Lancelot.

Emma surveyed their surroundings. The people still looked terrified of them, or maybe they were just terrified in general. With leaders like Lancelot and Mulan, Emma didn't blame them. One person stood out among the sea of fear – Aurora.

"Is it just me, or is Sleeping Beauty over there giving you the stink-eye?" Emma asked Snow.

"Well, I did knock the wind out of her a couple of time," Snow said.

"Yeah, I was wondering about that. Why didn't you go after Mulan?"

"Aurora wasn't wearing armor. Plus, she was an easier target."

Emma nodded and looked back at Aurora. She was still staring at them intensely, but Emma shrugged it off. The girl was harmless. Her friend Mulan, on the other hand, was a different story. Emma searched for her new nemesis and found her by a tent sharpening her sword. When the three of them sat down, Emma strategically placed herself facing her.

Snow and Lancelot quickly chattered back and forth like middle school girlfriends. Emma did her best not to dignify their conversation by listening. Most of it was about people she didn't know or care to know, places she would never see, and things she would never get the chance to do…not that she was feeling sorry for herself.

A man dropped a large plate of meat on the table, which startled Emma out of her thoughts.

"What the hell is that?" Emma said and ignored Snow's exasperated sigh.

"That," Lancelot explained, "is chimera. It's an acquired taste but all our hunting party could bring back – one part lion, one part serpent, one part goat."

Emma stabbed a huge chunk of meat off the plate and studied it. Years of roughing it in the foster system taught her not to be too picky. "Like turducken?" Emma asked. Either neither of her companions understood what she was talking about, or they had more important things to discuss. She continued to examine the food in front of her wearily as Snow rapidly fired off questions about the "safe haven". She picked up a onion that looked way too big and then grapes that were far too small. Did anything make sense in this place?

"_I would give anything for a cheeseburger,"_ she thought blissfully.

"We don't know how, and we don't know why," Emma heard Lancelot say in reference to how a small portion of fairytale land had escaped the curse. A land without McDonald's seemed cursed to Emma. She sniffed the cup of…well, it wasn't Dr. Pepper. Emma hoped there was alcohol in it. She tried some.

"_Not bad,"_ she thought.

Emma was brought back into the conversation at the sound of her name and references to their family. It was still such a new idea for Emma to think of Mary Margaret as family – real family, especially when she heard her refer to Henry as her grandson. That was weird.

"Can you help us find a portal?" Snow asked Lancelot.

"No," he said, "leaving is unwise. The Enchanted Forest is not as you remember it. The ogres have returned."

"Ogres?" Emma repeated, "Like as in 'fee, fi, fo, fum'…?" She could never remember the end of the rhyme – something about bread or bones and British people.

Snow snickered and pat her on the arm. "Those would be giants."

Emma wasn't sure if she should be insulted that Snow was once again treating her like an imbecile or relieved she was the only person at the table who didn't grow up having to know the difference between giants and ogres.

"Ogres would be far worse," Lancelot explained.

Emma's mind suddenly conjured images of a large misunderstood, green man who wanted to live peacefully in a swamp with his best friend – a talking donkeys. She kept this information to herself.

"Please, Snow," Lancelot said, "stay here. There are no more portals left."

Snow sounded like she'd just had a revelation. "I might know of one," she said.

"You do?" Emma asked.

"Where?" Lancelot asked.

"Cora's near," Snow explained. "I don't feel comfortable voicing my plans. She's powerful."

Emma went back to playing with the food on the table. She wasn't about to get into another argument with Snow about that. Besides, it sounded like Lancelot was arguing for her, and given Snow's recent history, she was more likely to listen to him anyway. Emma popped some of the grapes in her mouth. They were more bitter than she'd expected – still good, though.

"Nevertheless," Snow said, "I'm not talking chances. Just, trust me, I might have a way. Let us go," she pleaded.

Emma wondered if it would be rude to pack some of the chimera to go. It was surprisingly good for being a mythological creature.

Lancelot caved. "I'll allow it, but on one condition, take my bravest warrior with you. Allow Mulan to defend you."

Mulan appeared beside him as if she'd been waiting to be summoned at any moment.

Emma's preoccupation with the food had caused her to lose track of the woman but not of her feelings toward her. "We can defend ourselves," she told Lancelot.

"Deal," Snow said, completely ignoring Emma's remark.

Emma turned and looked at Snow. _"What the hell?"_ she asked her silently. Snow didn't look at her but continued to have a closed discussion with her buddy, Lancelot.

"Thank you, Lancelot," Snow told him, "for always looking out for me."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Emma asked her.

Snow smiled at her the way she probably smiled at her students if they asked her how babies were made. "I'll tell you some other time."

Emma got up from the table, suddenly losing her appetite.

"Allow me to take you to pick out a weapon," Mulan said as if she hadn't dragged them behind her horse only hours earlier.

"Go on," Snow told Emma. "I'll catch up with you."

"Fine," Emma said and then told Mulan, "Let's go."

Once they were out of earshot, Emma stopped. "We need to have a little chat."

"What would you like to discuss?" Mulan asked.

"How about how you treated us like we were guilty until proven innocent. Where I come people who act the way you did get twenty-five to life. Understand?"

Mulan shook her head. "I do not understand many of the phrases you are using, but I am sorry for hurting your friend."

"Not as sorry as you will be if you ever do it again," Emma said.

"Are you threatening me?" Mulan asked.

Emma turned her body so that she was only inches from the woman's stoic face and then said, "Call it what you like, but know this: I've dealt with bullies like you my whole life. You took advantage of us in a moment of weakness, and I will not let you do it again."

"It appears you and I got off on the wrong foot," Mulan said calmly. "Once again, I apologize."

"Emma," Snow called out to her. "Will you come over here please?"

Emma wasn't done talking. "I hope you understand me when I say that if you even look like you are going to hurt my friend, ogres will be the least of your problems."

"I understand you," Mulan said.

"Emma!" Snow repeated.

Emma didn't take her eyes off of Mulan, "I'm glad we had a chance to talk."

Emma left Mulan's side and hoped the woman had the good sense to heed her warning.

"What?" she asked Snow innocently as she walked up to her.

Snow shook her head and pointed at Mulan. "You know what."


	27. Unspoken

**Unspoken**

_Snow White_

Snow White rolled her eyes as she watched Mulan and Emma continue trying to one-up each other. Mulan's tactic of choice was blunt, verbal intimidation, while Emma's combat her with dry, witty sarcasm. Snow was fairly certain that half of what Emma said didn't make any sense to her opponent.

"Don't let her get to you," Snow told her daughter once Mulan walked off, "she's just trying to rattle you. Whatever happens out there, I can protect us. Just stick to the plan."

"What is the plan?" Emma asked. Her frustration was evident in her voice. "You haven't told me anything."

Snow glanced around to make sure no one was listening. For some odd reason, Aurora was watching them like a hawk, but she was out of earshot. Snow White made a mental note to apologize to the girl when – if – they returned.

"The wardrobe," Snow told Emma.

"The wardrobe?" Emma repeated. "You mean _the_ wardrobe – the wardrobe that brought little, baby me to Maine?"

At her daughter's words, Snow was hit immediately with two back to back flashbacks. The first was telling Charming to put her daughter in the wardrobe twenty-eight years ago, and the second was the day before, when Emma told her that no matter what the circumstances were, she had grown up alone because of Snow's choice.

"That's the one," Snow said and tried to mask what she was feeling.

"You think it will work?" Emma asked.

Snow could hear the awe in her voice. She was completely oblivious to how Snow felt, which was what Snow wanted. If Emma had been only her best friend – not her daughter, Snow would tell her how many times over the past day she remembered that she would never hold her infant child again. She would tell her that all she wanted to do was have a moment to be alone and cry. But now was not the time to mourn. She had to be strong for Emma, because no matter how capable Emma thought she was, Emma was in danger – perhaps more because she didn't realize it.

"Let's find out if the wardrobe survived, and then we'll worry about getting it to work," Snow told her.

"Where is it?" Emma asked.

Snow took a deep breath and said, "My place…you wanted to see where you're from Emma? Now is your chance."

Something about Snow's tone must have alerted Emma that something was off about her. There was immediate concern in Emma's eyes.

"What's wrong, Mary Margaret?"

Snow flinched at the sound of her old identity's name and wanted to kick herself for dropping her guard.

"Nothing," Snow said.

"I know you're lying," Emma said bluntly. "It's fine if you don't want to talk about it, but don't treat me like I'm an idiot just because I didn't grow up in this place."

_"So, she's still mad about that,"_ Snow thought and wondered if pride was an inherited characteristic. _"Maybe she got it from Charming's side of the family."_

"Emma, you're one of the most capable people that I know. If I'm not telling you what's wrong, it's because I don't even know yet."

"Whatever," Emma mumbled.

Snow watched as Emma sped up so that she wouldn't have to talk to her anymore.

"_Well, this is going to be a fun trip,"_ Snow thought and forced herself to concentrate on the journey that lay ahead. They could deal with their issues once they got back to Storybrooke.

* * *

Mulan suggested that they stop for a few minutes to rest and eat something. Snow got the idea that the woman was doing that more for their benefit than her own. Emma, who hadn't said two words to Snow since they'd left the village, nodded and walked away to rest alone.

"Don't go too far," Snow called out before she could catch herself.

Emma's only response was an annoyed glance in Snow's direction and a silent wave goodbye.

"Don't worry," Mulan told Snow once Emma was out of earshot, "she is close enough for me to protect her if something happens."

"Emma is my responsibility," Snow said without thinking and then sighed when she realized who Emma had gotten her stubborn pride from.

Snow sat down next to Mulan feeling far more emotionally exhausted than physically.

"Thank you," Snow told her. "I know we aren't acting like it, but we appreciate your help."

"I understand why the two of you would be upset with me."

Snow smiled but it was the kind of smile that didn't reach her eyes. "It isn't you, Mulan. Emma and I would be upset no matter what circumstances we found ourselves in, and for the record, I understand why you didn't trust us. I would have been just as cautious."

"You are not like most royalty I have met. I like that."

"Thank you," Snow said.

"Aurora could learn a lot from you."

Snow White thought about the scared, timid girl who had accompanied them earlier. "I think I was just like her when I was her age."

"I find that hard to believe."

"It feels like a lifetime ago," Snow said. "I guess it was."

"What changed you?"

"The short version of the story is that I made the wrong person angry and was on the run for years because of it. I had to learn how to rely on myself and to make friends in order to survive."

"Where was Emma?" Mulan asked. "She is your younger sister, correct?"

Snow laughed. "Not exactly."

"I apologize. I just assumed from the way the two of you are together that you were family."

"Oh, we are, but Emma is my daughter not my sister."

Snow had the strangest feeling someone had asked her this before, but she couldn't remember who. The almost memory didn't make sense because Snow had only remembered her identity the day before.

The shocked look on Mulan's face distracted her from the odd feeling of deja vue that she was quickly becoming accustomed to.

"How can that be?" Mulan asked.

"Her father and I created a way for her to escape the curse; so when all of us were frozen for the past twenty-eight years –"

"She grew up," Mulan said.

"Exactly – hence the complication."

"That was a very noble sacrifice."

Snow looked over at Emma who was now unsuccessfully trying to skip rocks in a nearby stream.

"She grew up alone because of it," Snow said. "There's nothing I can do to fix it. I lost her, and she lost me."

"I know what it is like to lose someone," Mulan said.

"Phillip?" Snow asked.

Mulan nodded. "He and I fought side by side in many battles. Phillip was like you – of noble birth but also of noble heart. I aided him in his quest to find Aurora, but I was unable to protect him from his fate."

Snow saw the pained look on Mulan's face, and suddenly Mulan's initial anger toward them made sense. She had loved Phillip.

"That's how you met Aurora?" Snow asked.

"Yes, I am responsible for her now that Phillip is gone. I would protect her with my life."

"She is lucky to have you," Snow said.

"Just as Emma is lucky to have you. She might have grown up alone, but you are here now. Deep down, she knows that."

Snow felt her eyes fill with tears. "I think she has been alone for so long that she doesn't know how to recognize that she isn't anymore."

"Some people are better at loving others than they are at being loved. I think your daughter is like this. The good news is that she loves you, and that is the first step to learning how to be loved."

"How do you know she loves me?" Snow asked.

"Because she shows her love the same way I do."

"And how is that?"

"More than anything, we protect and take care of those we love. I am not good with expressing how I feel, but my actions speak for me."

As Mulan's words sunk in, Snow watched Emma walk back to them.

"Are you two ready?" Emma asked.

"Yes," Mulan said and sent Snow a knowing look before she walked away.

Emma held out her hand to help Snow off the ground. It was a small gesture, but it reminded Snow of Mulan's words.

When they were face to face, Snow smiled at Emma.

"What?" she asked when Snow didn't saying anything.

"I love you, Emma. In case something happens to me, I want you to know that."

Emma dropped her hand and took a step back.

"Thanks," she mumbled.

Snow grinned at her and thought, _"You might not be ready to say it, but I know you love me too."_


End file.
